1media/Woman with heels and gun.jpgmedia/Woman with heels and gun.jpg2018-10-16T10:32:27-07:00Staged Photos of The Spanish Civil War58Meg Pearsonplain2019-05-06T21:03:34-07:00On July 21st, 1936, Marina Ginesta was 17 years old and a member of the Unified Socialist Youth, a Republican group during the Spanish Civil War. She and the rest of her faction had just defeated an uprising in Barcelona, and were living out of the Hotel Colon in Plaza de Catalunya in what she referred to herself as a "bourgeois manner" until their supplies ran out. The photographer was Hans Gutman, a German who went by Juan Guzman while in Spain. At 89, Ginesta was interviewed about this photo, and revealed that she didn't know the photo even still existed, and that it was staged. Ginesta and her faction had been celebrating their victory and Gutman was snapping photos. Another member of the USY lent Ginesta the machine gun for the photo, after making her swear to return it [1].
Many believed this photo was a spur of the moment decision, mid or just post-battle, due to the gun and the sense of pride on Ginesta's face. Just because the photograph was staged doesn't mean the sense of pride, confidence, and wonder are gone. This exhibit will examine some of the famous photos of the Spanish Civil War and the arguments for their being staged or genuine, and the importance of that.
To begin, we must introduce the famous photographers whose works this exhibit will be examining. Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and David Seymour were three photographer companions who traveled through Spain during the war, documenting it through photos. They took some of the most iconic photos of the war and were published throughout Europe and America. Capa and Taro were reportedly engaged before her death in 1937 in a tank accident, making her the first female photojournalist to die in battle, (2) and the three were often in the company of Ernest Hemingway. (3) Above are some examples of their work to be compared with the images below that are believed to be staged. One can see in the images of the photographers themselves that they were prone to staging photos. It is doubtful that Capa is truly taking a photo or video and is instead holding a camera so someone can snap one of him. Taro is lounging on a gravestone in Spain of a person she never knew, and who was likely buried long before the war began. It makes for a dramatic and gorgeous photo, but holds no real emotion for her as the subject of the photo. Seymour simply has several cameras around his neck, which would make for a difficult time if he was actually trying to take a photo himself. While photos being staged in some cases just causes a unique image that tells a story, when it comes to war, people often take what they see at face value and use it to establish who is what is worth fighting for and who the enemy is.
Some info on Gutman Create new paragraph on Capa On Taro On Seymour