Cornell Capa - PHOTOGRAPHS by Marian Froehlich

Cornell Capa (1918-2008) – a man who made a difference through the power of photography.

In an early photo of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip taken in New York in 1957, they are seated far apart – connected by a glance, yet separated by a diagonal white line. © Cornell Capa / Bulfinch Press

He was the youngest son of David and Julia Friedmann, socially conscious Jews in an anti-Semitic Hungary. In 1931 Robert, his older outspoken brother, fled the Hungarian dictatorship at the age of seventeen. He went to Berlin finding a career in photojournalism until the Nazis caused him to move to Paris where he changed his name to Capa. Cornell joined him, also taking the name Capa.

Catching the American spirit - the spirit of Evangelicalism, he photographed Billy Graham. © Cornell Capa / Bulfinch Press

Admiring his brother, Cornell gave up his dream of becoming a doctor to earn a living helping Robert. He began printing Robert’s work and of other photographers in a darkroom, learning developing technique before using a camera. The course of their life changed in 1936 with war in Europe looming. Cornell, his mother Julia, then Robert immigrated to the USA. Another brother and the father died of illness in Budapest.

In the spirit of Hollywood he caught pensive portraits of Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. © Cornell Capa / Bulfinch Press

Robert’s reputation as an outstanding war photographer during the Spanish Civil War made him famous. Returning from US military service after WWII, both Capa’s worked for LIFE magazine. Tragically, on his last assignment for LIFE in 1954, Robert died on the war field of French Indochina. Then, in grief, Cornell resigned from his position as a staff photographer for LIFE. He determined to preserve his brother’s legacy, but vowed to become a peace photographer. He became a freelancer.

The eyes have it. The young El Salvador poor boy looking at the rich guy with fancy car. © Cornell Capa / Bulfinch Press

Working with Magnum (the first international cooperative photo agency) Cornell covered political figures and events, stories on old age, mental retardation, missionaries in South America, as well as people and events in the Soviet Union. He developed the photo essay style to give greater depth and clarity. His work achieved great recognition and can be seen in books like CORNELL CAPA PHOTOGRAPHS and others.

Though Capa stated his preference of observing people, not landscape, he photographed Adlai Stevenson in 1952 leaning against a gigantic tree. The small patch of white shirt competes with the stark blackness of the tree pattern. © Cornell Capa / Bulfinch Press

Capa covered many American political campaigns. This Goldwater photo shows the candidate with his poster shot, the tight press core, and the packed crowd – all against a sky of lightly spaced clouds. © Cornell Capa / Bulfinch Press

Wanting to keep Robert’s work alive along with other master photographers whose work languished, Cornell organized a traveling exhibition. Large crowds attended. Encouraged, he found more people interested in establishing a museum just to exhibit photography. At that time, few art museums displayed photographs. The Museum of Modern Art was an exception with a separate department.

Using black and white shots, Capa said he painted with light as shown in his portrait of J.C. Christie. © Cornell Capa / Bulfinch Press

Cornell recognized that fine photographs need and deserve a special place of their own. So fundraising and administrative duties took over his life. With optimism triumphing over many stumbling blocks, in 1974, The International Museum of Photography (ICP) was born in an historic mansion on the upper east side of New York City. Audiences could see a wide range of photographic subject matter in special exhibitions. People of all ages lined up outside waiting to get in - filling a hunger to see quality photos - photos that said something, that struck accord in the viewer.

On assignment to the Soviet Union, Capa created a series on Russian Orthodox people. His shot of a woman silhouetted – seemingly kissing her shadow is an orchestration of light and dark - emphasizing the message of a man in touch with humanity. Camera work supported him until in 1974 he became the director of the International Center of Photography (ICP). © Cornell Capa / Bulfinch Press

Eventually the museum built an archive to preserve historic material. It inaugurated a school, including seminars and special functions. It outgrew the Fifth Avenue mansion to relocate in Midtown Manhattan. With wonderful reviews and enthusiastic crowds, Cornell Capa’s dream of showing and preserving imaginative, informative photo images came true. ICP elevated photography to the level of other visual arts. Now museums like the Getty in LA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY display their own collections. Photographic collections reach new levels in auction houses. Cornell Capa was a visionary.

The photo of Frances Perkins, the first female Cabinet member in US history and the mother of the Social Security Act, shows her cleaning out her desk. The composition is built of rectangles – the open cube of the box, the flat white papers on the desk, the angle of the chairs, even the white line of files stopping the frame on the lower right. But, of course, it is the subject herself creating the human interest. © Cornell Capa / Bulfinch Press

In May 2008 Cornell Capa was laid to rest between his devoted wife of 61 years, the former Edith Schwartz, and his brother Robert alongside of Julia, their mother, and Richard Whelan, their friend, writer and biographer.