LEICA Barnack Berek Blog: CERRO MURIANO SEPTEMBER 5, 1936 : ROBERT CAPA PHOTOGRAPHS THE FLIGHT OF THE REFUGEES FROM THE VILLAGE WITH A LEICA II (MODEL D). BIRTH OF THE MODERN AND AGILE WAR PHOTOJOURNALISM

By José Manuel Serrano Esparza

The investigations made by José Manuel Serrano Esparza between 2008 and this year 2020 in the areas between Cerro Muriano, the Old Obejo Train Station and El Vacar, along with the Finca de Villa Alicia, approximately one kilometer in the southwest of Cerro Muriano village, enabled him to discover the authorship and location of many new pictures of refugees of Cerro Muriano made by Robert Capa on September 5, 1936 which were unknown.

Leica II (Model D) number 90023 and Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 with which Capa made his reportage of The Refugees of Cerro Muriano fleeing the village on September 5, 1936. It had been given away to him four years before, in 1932, by Simon Guttman, director of the Berlin Photographic Agency Dephot, and was sold at the 22nd Westlicht Photographica Auction in Vienna on November 24, 2012. © jmse

The photographs were taken with a 24 x 36 mm format Leica II (Model D) rangefinder camera

Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 number 133594 manufactured in 1932 matching the Leica II (Model D) number 90023 with which Capa made the pictures of the refugees fleeing from Cerro Muriano on September 5, 1936. Manufactured in early 1932, this lens is also historically valuable and interesting, because it was one of the first made featuring 7 o´clock infinity lock.

coupled to a Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens and taken during the massive flight of the civil population because of the air attacks of the Francoist aviation, from midday to the afternoon — the air raids were intensified from around 15:00 h — of that date.

Putting through its paces the fundamental keynotes regarding 24 x 36 mm format photographic cameras able to comfortably shoot handheld and expose small negatives yielding great pictures set forth by Oskar Barnack in 1914 with the Ur-Leica and subsequently in 1930 with the Leica 1 Model C non standard mount (first production Leica to accept interchangeable lenses, although they were matched to individual cameras as the lens mount flange to film distance varied with each camera)

Page 5 of an original Leica Gesamt-Katalog 1933 Ernst Leitz Wetzlar (Germany) showing a Leica II (Model D) rangefinder camera and a text elaborating on the revolutionary features and virtues of this photographic tool, particularly its exceedingly small size and weight, in synergy with its 24 x 36 mm format and its top-notch 4 elements in 3 groups Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens.

and in 1932 with the Leica II Model D ( first Leica able to accept interchangeable lenses and featuring a rangefinder, which is not combined with the viewfinder but eyepieces are located 37 mm apart) in which the RF is automatically coupled by turning the focusing ring of the lens until the two images coincide.

Robert Capa (who was accompanied by his girlfriend Gerda Taro) made in Cerro Muriano (placed 15 km on the north of Córdoba city) on September 5, 1936 the extraordinary reportage The Flight of the Refugees from Cerro Muriano (which meant to practical effects a turning point in Capa´s career as a war photographer and a milestone in the History of Photojournalism), photographing the village inhabitants while hastily escaping on foot as a consequence of the Francoist aviation attack which started at roughly 13:00 h at midday and intensified from 15:00 h in the afternoon.

Thanks to the research made by José Manuel Serrano Esparza during twelve years in Cerro Muriano area, we know at present in 2020 approximately a 400% more of pictures and locations made by Capa of Cerro Muriano refugees hastily escaping from the village than in 2008, to such an extent that they make up now a total figure of 27 images.

This is a very important and defining photographic essay for the time being, since to faithfully depict the drama and horror of war, Capa doesn´t choose to get pictures on front line (with frequent presence of bowels of injured soldiers, blood, amputated limbs, terrible wounds, etc), but mainly focuses on the innocent civil population mostly suffering its aftermath, managing to beget amazing images, fraught with subtle details and hugely eloquent countenances unveiling the very dramatic context being lived by the persons depicted in them.

Oskar Barnack inside his office at Ernst Leitz Wetzlar (Germany) in 1934. Here we can see the genius holding with his left hand a cardboard with two 13 x 18 cm prints, each one with its corresponding 24 x 36 mm contact, while he keeps a third print of the same size in his right hand. From the very creation of his Ur-Leica in 1914, Barnack realized that the small and very light 35 mm Leica rangefinder cameras would mean a revolution in the development of photojournalism, shooting handheld with remarkable comfort and unfettered freedom of movements, unlike the previous bulky medium format and large format cameras that usually needed the use of a tripod. The tremendous photographic visionary insight of this man and the arrival of a new way of getting pictures created by him would be confirmed by Robert Capa in Cerro Muriano (Córdoba) on September 5, 1936,

Oskar Barnack´s grave in the Old Cemetery of Wetzlar (Germany).

only eight months after the death of Oskar Barnack in Wetzlar on January 16, 1936,

Robert Capa´s eyes. His great speed of movements, stamina and physical resistance strengthened throughout mid twenties playing football in Budapest and skiing on the Buda hills were fundamental for him to be able to make the landmark reportage Flight of the Refugees from Cerro Muriano, constantly getting out of a press car (driven by a chauffeur and inside which he was with Gerda Taro).

Map showing the 14 km route followed by Cerro Muriano refugees until reaching the Old Obejo Train Station and El Vacar on September 5, 1936.

following those poor people path, walking around many different stretches of the Córdoba-Almorchón railway, going

Left area of Cerro Muriano north exit, through which many inhabitants of the village walked across the way to Obejo Train Station walking following northwest direction. The tracks of the Córdoba-Almorchón railway are approximately thirty meters on the right (out of image). All of the terrain visible in this photograph was some meters higher in 1936, at the same level as the railway, and it was lowered some decades after the Spanish Civil War to create a tract of the N-432A Granada-Badajoz.

from the north exit of Cerro Muriano village

Right area of Cerro Muriano north exit (visible in the background), with the tracks of the Córdoba-Almorchón railway still existing and visible in the image. Other many inhabitants of the village walked next to this side of the tracks, also following northwest direction towards Old Obejo Train Station and El Vacar. A very old telegraph post from thirties can be seen standing, in the middle right zone of the photograph. All of the houses appearing in the picture didn´t exist in 1936, and there wasn´t any grass either.

Signpost a few meters on the right of the Córdoba-Almorchón railway (out of image, on the left), indicating the proximity of the Old Obejo Train Station.

A water feeder for locomotives of the Córdoba-Almorchón railway trains. It is located roughly 200 meters before arriving at the Old Obejo Train Station, which can be glimpsed in the background, half covered by some trees. The refugees fleeing from Cerro Muriano village (at a distance of approximately 5 km from this place) advanced very near this facility, on both sides of the tracks.

Front view of the Old Obejo Train Station, reached by the refugees fleeing from Cerro Muriano after 5 km of very hard march. Those hundreds of people were already very tired, sweating profusely and many of them with blisters on their feet, but they had to pluck up courage and go on with their traipse 9 more kilometers until arriving at El Vacar.

to the Obejo Old Train Station and El Vacar, photographing a lot of entire families walking away from war, trudging along 14 kilometers under a scorching sun and a temperature of 40º C.

From a photographic viewpoint, the images of Cerro Muriano refugees bear Capa´s unmistakable hallmark: he is at the suitable place, at the adequate moment and approaches as much as possible to subjects.

In addition, Capa paid heed to details making a difference.

These are the pictures and the locations where they were made:

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

1) Photograph taken by Capa beside the Cortijo of Villa Alicia — within the estate bearing that name and located around one kilometer in the southwest of the village of Cerro Muriano — , very few meters before reaching it, in the stretch of public way that passes next to it, known as Way of Villa Alicia or Way of Piedra Escrita, with Torrearboles hill skyline visible in the background.

Discovery of the location of this picture: José Manuel Serrano Esparza in May of 2010.

Map of the area in which can be seen Cerro Muriano village, the Finca of Villa Alicia and the Cortijo of Villa Alicia.

We can see a tall man walking in the middle of two black donkeys. He wears dark trousers and jacket, white shirt and a hat.

He seems to be the father of the children who appear behind him,

Selective reframing of the right area of the image. In spite of the abundant grain of the Kodak Eastman Nitrate Panchromatic black and white film featuring a sensitivity of Weston 32 (roughly equivalent to ISO 40), the great acutance of the chemical emulsion developed with Agfa Rodinal makes possible a very good discernment of the facial traits of the refugees in enlargements of specific areas of the picture, with rermarkable visual perception of sharpness.

a teenage girl just on his right, wearing a black shirt whose left sleeve is turned up, mounted on a donkey, a little child going after her and mounted on another donkey and whose head protrudes from the left arm of the quoted young girl, a man in the far right background (hardly visible, mounted on a white donkey and wearing a cap with shade on his head),

Selective reframing of the left area of the picture.

a little girl being approximately between 6-8 years old who is mounted on the big saddle bag of the black donkey that is in the image with a telegraph post ascending from the upper area of her right arm and is wearing a clear jacket and dark shirt, while her hair is very tousled, because of the stress of the escape, with her chin being partially hidden by the black donkey's right ear tip; and behind her, on the extreme left area of the photograph, we can see a woman dressed with a dark garment, mounted on a white donkey and taking with her an absolutely lovely very little baby who has been captured by Robert Capa with all of his charm.

This picture was almost unknown until the This is War! Robert Capa at Work exhibition held throughout 2007 and 2008, in which it was unveiled that it had been made by Robert Capa, though its location wasn´t known.

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

2) Vertical photograph, made by Robert Capa on September 5th 1936 at midday, next to the Cortijo of Villa Alicia, on the small adjacent esplanade.

Discovery of the location of this picture: José Manuel Serrano Esparza in September of 2008.

In this photograph we can see a mature woman on the left, wearing dark apparel, holding a little child in her arms and a man on the right clad with the typical Andalusian hat, clear jacket with dark right pocket, dark trousers and white slippers, who is taking a little girl between his arms.

You can also see an approximately between 7 and 9 years old boy in short trousers and a donkey in the background with a hardly glimpsed very little child mounted on it.

This is the second photograph of refugees taken by Capa around high noon beside the Cortijo of Villa Alicia, in the southwest of Cerro Muriano village, approximately one kilometer and two hundred meters from the roundabout linking the CP-45 way and the old N-432 Granada-Badajoz highway.

This photograph appeared in three different media:

a) Vu magazine, number 445, page 1107 of September 23, 1936.

The image is reproduced in horizontal 2:3 proportion, and approximately a third of the right top half of the picture is cut by the lower left area of a photograph made by Georg Reisner, also in Cerro Muriano, that same day.

But on the right of the image, just from the left arm of the girl taken in his arms by the man wearing an Andalusian hat who appears in the background,

you can see part of the saddlebags of a donkey, on which other escaping persons — out of image — are mounted.

b) On page 64 of Photo-History I magazine from 1937, edited by Richard Storrs Childs, Ernest Galarza and Sidney Pollatsek, in Concord, N.H.Editorial and General Offices, 155 East 44th Street New York City, Modern Age Books, Inc, United States.

The image appears reproduced in a 2:3 vertical format, and the upper area of a telegraph post protrudes over the head of the mature woman in the foreground carrying the baby in her arms.

The photograph was edited cutting the picture vertically, just on the right of the left arm of the girl who is being taken in his arms by the man clad in an Andalusian hat visible in the background, eliminating the out of focus saddlebags appearing on the right of the picture in the original horizontal negative featuring roughly a 20% more of exposed surface and information on the right.

c) On page 82 of the book Robert Capa, Photographic Work, edited by Phaidon Press, the image appears reproduced with a vertical 2:3 aspect ratio, very similar to the one on page 64 of Photo-History I magazine from 1937, and it has likewise been edited cutting the right area in which the aforementioned saddlebags appear in the original black and white negative.

Therefore, since this picture was edited and reproduced in different formats, there were some doubts as to its authorship by Capa or Taro, but it can be stated almost 100% that it was made by Capa with his Leica II (Model D) and a Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens, exposing an original bulk loaded 24 x 36 mm Eastman Kodak Panchromatic Nitrate b & w negative featuring an approximate sensitivity of Weston 32 (equivalent to around ISO 40), which was edited vast majority of times cutting from the left arm of the previously mentioned girl.

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

3) Picture made by Capa in the Finca of Villa Alicia on September 5, 1936, approximately at 12:30 h, beside the Cortijo de Villa Alicia, during the evacuation of civil population from the zone, because of the attack of the third column of Francoist troops against the south slope of Torreárboles hill, to whose north side both the Finca of Villa Alicia and the Cortijo of Villa Alicia are conterminous.

Discovery of the location of this picture: José Manuel Serrano Esparza, in September of 2011.

The man appearing in the image mounted on a donkey, is taking a little girl in his arms.

The father, the little girl and Capa are hearing the rifle, machine gun and artillery shots exchanged between the Republican defenders placed on the summit of Torreárboles hill and the Francoist troops of the third attacking column — the one on the left — under the command of major Sagrado trying to assault the south slope of this crest.

Capa gets this picture at very few meters from the spot where he makes the picture 1) in which a father next to a donkey and all of his family behind him, also on donkeys, are fleeing from the Cortijo of Villa Alicia.

The enlargement of the right area of this image clearly shows that Capa made this photograph around ten meters behind, in the same tract of public way going beside the Cortijo de Villa Alicia, also known as public Way of Piedra Escrita.

Capa has moved quickly, striving after capturing the hasty flight of all these frightened people from every angle, as well as doing his utmost to photograph different persons.

The man depicted on the left of this image mounted on a donkey, wearing a dark beret along with clear shirt and taking a little girl in his arms, is not the same man appearing in the aforementioned picture 1) clad in a clear beret, dark shirt and also mounted on a donkey, who isn´t holding any child in his arms.

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

4) Photograph made by Capa a few meters before reaching the Cortijo of Villa Alicia, shooting his Leica II (Model D) from a very near distance to a roughly 60 year old woman wearing black clothes and stockings, mounted on a white donkey and appearing on the left of the image.

Discovery of the location of this picture : José Manuel Serrano Esparza in July of 2019

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

This old woman is holding an exceedingly young blonde child ( being approximately one year and a half old and probably her grandson), with her left hand, while taking the animal´s reins (visible in the lower left area of the image) with her right one.

Capa, always paying heed to details making a difference, clearly perceives the stark contrast between the countenance of the old woman (visibly distressed, very upset and with a haunting gaze, because she is bound to run away and leave behind everything she has, her dwelling, her remembrances and many decades of strenuous effort from dusk to dawn, without being able to foresee her future and her family´s one) and the relaxed face of the child, looking at Capa with curiosity, utterly alien to what is happening.

Also in the left half of the image, behind the old woman and her grandson, you can see an approximately 16 year old young boy, clad in a black beret, advancing mounted on another donkey, likewise with an anxious countenance and holding a roughly three year old little girl who is turning her head to the left.

And on the right half of the image can be distinctly seen an around 20 years old alone man riding a horse and also fleeing from the Cortijo of Villa Alicia, following the same direction as the rest of persons appearing in the picture.

The Hungarian photojournalist from Jewish descent shoots his 24 x 36 mm format Leica II (Model D) rangefinder camera, probably at f/8, trying to obtain the widest sharpness area feasible, greatly attaining it, though because of the huge proximity from which he gets the picture, the old woman and her grandson (who are the closest people to the Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens) appear slightly out of focus, unlike the faces of the two young men advancing behind them, showing a bit more accurate focus.

On the other hand, this image made by Capa features once more a further highly meaningful aspect, typical in him, in addition to a not perfect focus (since it is an instinctive and very fast shot made with his Leica) and that Marc Riboud — one of the most important photojournalists ever, who also used Leica rangefinder cameras — often commented to Cornell Capa in New York throughout decades : the impressive timing precision achieved by Bob when pressing the shutter release button of his cameras.

Take but a short look at the way in which Capa has masterfully captured the majestic walking of the horse with its right leg bent in motion, revealing a huge contained tension in the family, who escape the best they can, because everybody would wish to be running away much faster, even galloping, but the massive presence of old women and children in the group, prevents them from going quicker, in spite of the fact that at the moment in which this image is created, everybody appearing in it is very scared.

Photo : Robert Capa. © ICP New York

Because both the old woman, the children, the two young men, the two donkeys and the horse are hearing the exchange of rifle and machine gun shots taking place between the Republican forces defending the summit of Las Malagueñas Hill (where the advanced Republican command post is located, with majors Juan Bernal, Aviraneta, Armentia and Balibrea) and the middle Francoist column under the command of major Álvarez Rementería attacking uphill its south slope, between the Republican forces defending the crest of Torreárboles hill and the right Francoist column under the command of major Sagrado attacking uphill its south slope, and the tremendous clash happening in the ravine separating the Cerro de la Coja and Las Malagueñas Hill, because the Alcoyanos (militiamen from that village of Alicante province) have pounced on the Tabor of Regulares of Melilla nº3 (under the command of major López Guerrero) and the Squadrons of Regulares of Ceuta nº 3 and Alhucemas (under the command of major Gerardo Figuerola) like a whirlwind and will avoid the encircling manoeuver of the dreaded Moroccan troops for some hours, until being finally annihilated around 22:00 h in the night.

It´s truly praiseworthy how to faithfully depict the drama and horror of war, Capa doesn´t choose to get pictures on front line (with frequent presence of bowels of injured soldiers, blood, amputated limbs, terrible wounds, etc), but mainly focuses on the innocent civil population mostly suffering its aftermath, managing to beget amazing images, fraught with subtle details and hugely eloquent countenances unveiling the very dramatic context being lived by the persons depicted in them.

The people appearing in this image are fleeing from the Cortijo of Villa Alicia, and they have good reasons for it, because albeit at the moment in which Capa gets this picture, there weren´t combats in the Finca of Villa Alicia,

this was by far the most dangerous area on September 5, 1936, even more than Las Malagueñas and Torreárboles hills, since the Finca of Villa Alicia was the area through which Francoist attacking troops needed to perform the encircling manoeuver (and no prisoners were taken within it), crossing it to strike the north slope of Torreárboles, only 500 meters beyond the Cortijo of Villa Alicia.

And the Francoist troops from the Army of Africa that attacked Las Malagueñas and Torreárboles hills on September 5, 1936, although very professional and featuring many years of combat experience, were inferior in numbers (roughly 1,500 men) to the Republican effectives (around 3,000 men) defending those heights, so speed in encircling manoeuvers was the key factor for the success of the attacking operation with three columns devised by general Varela, because these highly experienced troops in ruthless colonial war in Africa , were specially prepared to fulfill offensive missions.

On hearing the great proximity of combats between Francoist and Republican forces at those moments, the evacuation of vast majority of the people appearing in the six pictures made by Capa at very few meters from the Cortijo of Villa Alicia on September 5, 1936 between 12:30 h and 13:30 h (it´s difficult to know it with more precision) was organized.

Josefa and Rafael Lozano had bought in 1921 the Finca of Villa Alicia and the Cortijo of Villa Alicia (built in 1912) that had previously been inhabited by the English entrepreneurs and engineers of the Cordoba Copper Company and their families, who between 1868 and 1919 (year in which they abandoned their activity) exploited the top quality copper veins of Cerro Muriano, following the activity of other three British companies which had done it between 1897 and 1908.

Rafaela Lozano (Miguel Zamora´s wife), a woman with great courage and working ability, was daughter of Josefa Lozano.

By dint of huge endeavour and perseverance for decades, the Cortijo of Villa Alicia was enlarged and improved after the Spanish Civil War by Rafaela Lozano and Miguel Zamora with the help of their sons Ana and José Agudo, Fuensanta and Andrés García, Marisol, Rafael and Pilar Pastor, Miguel and Amparo García, a labour which was followed by their grandchildren, and the golden wedding anniversary of Rafaela Lozano and Miguel Zamora was celebrated in the Cortijo of Villa Alicia on January 6, 1986.

But there is more.

The old woman clad in white apparel and taking the very little child beside her on the donkey is the same woman appearing on far left of the picture also made by Capa and whose location was discovered in May 2010.

After making selective reframings of the left area

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

of the picture 1 made by Capa next to the Cortijo of Villa Alicia in which appears a man clad with an Andalusian hat, walking and leading the flight of his family (with some of its members with different ages visible behind him mounted on donkeys and in which the slope of Torreárboles hill in the upper left area of the photograph can also be seen) whose location I discovered in May 2010

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

and the left zone of the image 4) in which appears a roughly 60 year old woman with a very small blonde child and advancing mounted on a white donkey (while behind her advance an approximately 16 year old boy wearing a black beret on another donkey, who is holding a roughly 3 year old little girl and an approximately 20 year old man, likewise with a beret and going alone mounted on a horse), I could discern that the old woman and the very little blonde child mounted on a white donkey appearing on far left of the second photograph, are exactly the same persons going on a white donkey on far left of the image whose location was discovered in 2010:

Selective reframing of the background extreme left area of the picture 1

Selective reframing area of the left zone of picture 4

This confirms once more Capa´s great speed of movements when he got the pictures, because after making the first photograph of the family father wearing an Andalusian hat and advancing walking beside a donkey, leading the group and escaping with all of his family behind him mounted on donkeys, the future founder of Magnum Agency (along with Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Seymour " Chim" , George Rodgers and William Vandivert) clearly perceives the facial expression of anxiety in the old woman going with her grandson on the white donkey, so he decides to approach her as much as possible and get a second picture, in such a way that the photojournalist manages to go unnoticed during the photographic act, though the blonde child, relaxed and indifferent to the dramatic context that is being lived by his family, looks at him with curiosity.

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

5) Photograph made by Robert Capa on September 5, 1936 to an approximately 10 years old girl, a roughly 8 years old boy, an around 3 years old child and an approximately 5 year old girl, all of them, probably siblings, advancing mounted on a white donkey on whose saddle their parents have put a lot of blankets for them to be able to spend the night sleeping outdoors, because they are setting off towards the north exit of Cerro Muriano village, and from there, they will have to go to the Old Obejo Train Station (at a distance of 5 km from the village) and El Vacar (at a distance of 14 km from Cerro Muriano).

Discovery of the location of this picture : José Manuel Serrano Esparza in July of 2019

Capa moves very quickly and approaches the children to the maximum, with a slight diagonal right angle with respect to them and the donkey.

It´s a very fast shot, slightly out of focus, with a very tight framing, typical in Capa, who strives upon achieving top impact in his images and that they be interesting, depicting defining instants conveying one or more important messages, which, once more, he attains, as well as adding drama, on getting the picture with a strong low angle shooting, to magnify the relevance of these four children as victims of war.

Capa, a man oozing great sensitivity and an indescribable gift to capture meaningful details, even in the most extreme contexts, instantly realizes that the children´s parents (who are taking other very little children in arms) have grasped the danger of fall to the ground during the march for the two smallest children mounted on the white donkey, so they have placed the two older children with a special survival configuration, to reduce that risk to the utmost:

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

- The older girl (being roughly ten years old) is at the front, with the double mission of leading the donkey with her legs and the reins (which appear near her right knee) and at the same time to oblige the approximately five years old little girl just behind her to strongly grab her arms to her waist.

- The roughly eight year old boy mounting in the rearmost position on the donkey and wearing a clear long sleeved jacket, has got the double mission of grabbing the smallest child (being around three years old) going just in front of him and simultaneously watch the youngest girl (being around five year old, clad in white striped clothes, located behind her elder sister leading the group on the donkey), and he mustn´t lose sight of her even a second, because if for any reason the animal is frightened by the roar of the very near battle and bolts, that little girl would fall on the ground without her elder sister being able to avoid it.

That´s why the around 8 year old boy going in the reamost position on the donkey appears nervously staring at his little sister clad in a striped white attire.

Original vintage advertisement inside a number of American Photography magazine of 1932 announcing the launching into market of the 24 x 36 mm format Leica II (Model D) rangefinder camera coupled to a Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens by Ernst Leitz Wetzlar, which was particularly promoted in United States by Central Camera Company 230 S. Wabash Avenue, Chicago, Illinois and E.Leitz Inc, Dpt. 101 60 East 10th Street, New York. In spite of the great focusing accuracy achievable thanks to its built-in rangefinder, Capa´s picture of the four very young persons on the white donkey is slightly out of focus, because it was an instinctive and very fast shot in which top priority was to capture the defining instant with the rearmost boy (on whose right sleeve is the focus) anxiously watching his youngest sister (grabbing her elder sister heading the group) to prevent her from falling into the ground while the smallest blonde child holds to the checkered blanket to keep balance). Needless to say that Capa´s speed of movements and tremendous ability to generate exceedingly tight framings like this from a very near distance, spawning images oozing impact and conveying messages, is impressive.

Robert Capa. © ICP New York

This limit situation bringing about a steady sizable stress in the roughly 8 year old boy mounted the last one on the donkey and on whom mostly depends the security of the youngest two children going on the donkey, stems from the fact that there isn´t any way at the moment in which other fathers, mothers, grandfathers or grandmothers can guard these two little children, since all of them are mounted on other donkeys with other children or walking with other even younger children, some of them babies, in their arms.

There are in the image very powerful diagonal lines made up by the elder boy and girl and the thin tree on the right, in symbiosis with the drama arising from the right arm of the approximately 5 year old girl visibly catching hold of her elder sister´s waist, and the right hand of the youngest child, which because of the movement, has fallen until touching the blanket and is not getting hold of the waist of his little sister wearing striped white clothes.

Evidently, the risk that the two youngest children can fall on the ground from an elevated height is going to be constant during the many kilometers they have to do, and Capa manages to convey the feeling of difficult balance of the four children on the white donkey, along with the hasty flight, symbolized by the naked right foot of the oldest girl, who hasn´t even had enough time to put her shoes on.

Photo: Robert Capa

6) Picture made by Capa beside the Cortijo de Villa Alicia — in the southwest of Cerro Muriano and at a distance of approximately 1,100 meters from the current roundabout linking the CP-45 way and the old N-432 Granada-Badajoz highway —, at around 300 meters beyond it, in the direction of the hill and with the slope of Torreárboles being visible in the background, nearer than in the other two photographs of refugees made by Capa next to that cortijo.

Capa made the picture approximately at 12:30 h.

This photograph appears in one of the pages of the illustrated book The Spanish People´s Fight for Liberty, compiled by A. Ramos Oliveira and published in 1937 by the Press Department of the Spanish Embassy in London, without indicating either the authorship or the location where it was made.

Discovery of the authorship and location of this picture: José Manuel Serrano Esparza in May 2010.

In this horizontal photograph we can see two little children mounted on a donkey, with the clear profile of Torreárboles hill visible in the background, on the left of both of them, in an ascending direction towards the upper left corner of the image. The elder brother is holding the little one, who is sitting on a pillow and with his naked right leg apparent.

Both children are wearing pieces of white fabric probably knotted by their mother and put on their heads to protect them from sun beams.

We can also glimpse the black beret and the shadowed face of a man, probably the father or grandfather of both brothers, protruding over the pillow, while a checkered blanket on the packsaddle on the left of the image and the right eye of the donkey in the lower right area of the picture are discernible too.

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

7) Horizontal picture made by Capa on September 5, 1936, at approximately 15:00 h, within the village of Cerro Muriano and in which appears a mother mounted on a donkey, holding in her arms a little child wrapped with a white blanket and a straw hat just on the right, beside which can be glimpsed part of the head of another of her sons.

In the background two windows can be seen under a powerful sun bringing about a high key area.

Just on the right of the donkey, there´s a little girl — Josefa Ruiz´s eldest child — eating what seems to be an apple.

Discovery of the location of this picture and identification of the woman: Juan Romero Ruiz, son of Josefa Ruiz, who is the woman on the donkey, in August 2006.

Juan Romero Ruiz, the child appearing in the image wrapped in a white blanket, discovered Josefa Ruiz, his mother, when Adela Romero Blanque, Josefa Ruiz´s great granddaughter, showed him in 2005 a book which included this photographed reproduced in one of its pages, reporting it all in a reportage made in August 2006 by Patricia Fonseca and Bruno Rascao and published by the Portuguese magazine Visao in September 2006.

These people advancing from left to right in the image, are fleeing from Cerro Muriano, going to the north of the village, trying to arrive at soon as possible at the Obejo Train Station and El Vacar.

Capa gets the picture from an exceedingly close distance, with a very tight framing, cutting some of the woman´s head on top and a third of the donkey in the lower left area of the negative.

From this photograph on, all the images of refugees created by Capa correspond to people escaping from the village of Cerro Muriano — which is being bombed by the Francoist aircraft — and advancing northwards, in the direction of the old Obejo Train Station and El Vacar.

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

8) Picture made by Robert Capa and whose authorship was known since nineties in which it was unveiled by Cornell Capa during an exhibition on his brother Robert Capa in Japan.

It was made around 400 meters from the north exit of Cerro Muriano to the refugees who can be seen in the image, fleeing from the Francoist bombing of the village with aircraft, walking on the left of the Córdoba-Almorchón railway, in a stretch in which it features a pronounced slope on the adjacent flat ground through which the persons visible in the picture are advancing, going to Obejo Train Station (approximately 5 kilometers from Cerro Muriano) and El Vacar (roughly 14 km).

In this tract, the rails of the railway, covered by the bodies of the refugees appearing in the photograph, were in 1936 much more levelled between each other than currently in which the rails of the left area just by the slope feature a visible slant with respect to the ones located on the right, because of the lack of maintenance and many years elapsed, since this railroad was abandoned as a passenger means of transport in 1974, remaining restricted to goods conveyance, until the 4,2 km previous to the entrance in Córdoba were destroyed in 1992, which meant the end of the operating life of this railway line, whose path was one of the most beautiful in the whole history of the Spanish trains, with landscapes of unmatched natural beauty, particularly when crossing Sierra Morena.

In the colour picture made in August 2015, the two buildings which can be seen in the background on the left, the streetlights, the high voltage tower and its cables, the fence and the traffic sign of the N-432a national highway didn´t exist when Capa made this picture on September 5, 1936.

Discovery of the location of this photograph: José Manuel Serrano Esparza in August of 2015.

In the middle of the image there´s a young mother wearing white apparel and slippers, taking her baby in her arms, while grabbing with her right hand a straw hat with a hole.

On her right, two men are walking: one is approximately 20 years old and is taking on his back, leant on his right shoulder, a heavy backpack with personal belongings, and another one seeming to be older is taking a large sack on his left shoulder and has been captured by Capa when he´s adjusting the straw hat to prevent the sun from inciding on his face.

On the right half of the image, behind the woman and the two men leading the group, most of them probably belonging to the same family, there are some further people walking: a teenage girl clad in a clear dress and grabbing the handle of a metallic bucket with a little cat inside, an around thirty years old man taking a wicker basket full of personal belongings on his head, and a woman walking beside him, of whom only her left leg, left shoulder and left half of the head can be glimpsed.

Rearmost, on the right corner of the image, an approximately ten years old girl is walking taking her little brother with her hand.

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

9) Picture made by Capa in which there are three women wearing black dresses and walking under a scorching sun.

Two of them — the one in the middle and the one on the left — are young.

The one on the left is carrying a very little baby in her arms and the one in the center is taking an approximately 4 years old blond little girl with her right arm while simultaneously she has to do a physical overstrain to grab the right arm of the old woman appearing on the right of the image — probably her mother, who has two missing upper front teeth — , to prevent her from falling on the ground while walking.

This is an exceedingly dramatic image in which in spite of the huge proximity from which Capa gets the picture (around 2,75 meters), the woman in the center doesn´t see Capa, since she is on the verge of exhaustion, has her eyes closed and her mouth much more open than the other two women, because her strength begins to fail, the heat is stifling and she´s panting.

This image was published with the credit Robert Capa in the French illustrated magazine Vu of September 23, 1936.

Virtually impossible to spot the exact location of this image, because of its very blurred background.

Anyway, the three women appear with much higher quality inside the number 2 from February 1937 of the 36 x 26 cm large format Nova Iberia illustrated magazine, with their faces utterly discernible and an added photomontage background that hasn´t got anything to do with the location where Capa got the picture, probably between Cerro Muriano and the Old Obejo Train Station.

Photo: Robert Capa . © ICP New York

10) Vertical picture made by Capa on September 5, 1936 at approximately 15:35 h and in which we can see a woman walking across the old way to the Obejo Train Station and El Vacar village as fast as she can, but with great difficulty and effort, taking with his left arm a very large checkered bundle almost three times wider than her body and very heavy, containing the personal belongings she´s been able to save.

She has just wiped the sweat of the right area of her temple and chin with her right hand.

A lot of fear is reflected on her face and she´s looking at Capa rather puzzled.

Behind her, you can see a telegraph post which is nowadays exactly as it was 84 years ago.

This woman is approximately two kilometers from Cerro Muriano, sweats profusely and is heading for the Obejo Train Station and El Vacar village, walking on the right beside the Córdoba-Almorchón railway track.

Discovery of the location of this picture: José Manuel Serrano Esparza in September of 2008.

Photo: Robert Capa. © jmse

11) Vertical picture made by Capa to an old woman walking very fast and with her head uncovered, holding in her arms a baby who is wrapped in a small white blanket, to protect him from the heat and sun beams.

The angst and fear are pretty apparent on the face of this woman, who is escaping from Cerro Muriano endeavouring to save her grandson from the bombing of the village by the Francoist aviation which is taking place.

This is another very dramatic image in which one of the arms of the baby is hanging from the left hip of his grandmother,

who is at approximately 2,5 kilometers from Cerro Muriano village and is advancing with huge resolve and power across the old way going from Cerro Muriano to the old Obejo Train Station and El Vacar, marching on the right beside the Córdoba-Almorchón railway line.

Discovery of the location of this picture: José Manuel Serrano Esparza in September of 2008.

Photo: Robert Capa. ICP New York

Capa photographs this old woman from an amazingly short distance of around 3,5 meters, managing to incredibly go unnoticed.

It is an instinctive and very quick shot that captures the woman by surprise, and the grandmother appears featuring great concern and stress visible on her countenance, which at the same time reveals enormous will to save the baby as soon as possible, while on her right, near her, there´s a walking man clad in a dark garment, and some meters behind, we can see a further walking man wearing clearer clothes who is taking on his head a very large sack, almost the size of his body.

This shot is truly amazing, because the old woman has just seen Capa cross the way after getting a previous picture very few seconds before, but the photojournalist chooses the best instant to press the shutter release button of his Leica II (Model D) rangefinder camera and avoid to be detected in spite of the exceedingly near distance to the baby´s grandmother.

This is not about technique. It is what Elliott Erwitt defined as " the instinct to create great photography and which is casual and uncontrollable ".

The woman body hides some trees similar to the ones appearing on the right of the image, which was made in a place between Cerro Muriano and the Obejo Train Station, next to the Córdoba-Almorchón railway track.

Discovery of the location of this picture: José Manuel Serrano Esparza in September of 2008.

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

12)

It is a copy on black and white 18 x 24 cm Ilford photographic paper made by Imre ´ Csiki ´ Weisz in Paris in late 1936, and which was kept by Cornell Capa and his wife Edie Capa, who donated it to the ICP of New York.

This photograph was made by Capa few seconds before and roughly ten meters behind the picture 11) in which there is an old woman walking at great speed and taking a baby wrapped in a small white blanket in her arms.

Discovery of the location of this photograph : José Manuel Serrano Esparza in August of 2015.

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

When Capa gets this picture, he has just got out of an official press car ( a small part of the forward area of its left mudguard is visible on the lower right corner of the image) driven by a chauffeur and inside which also goes Gerda Taro. The Hungarian photographer from Jewish descent will do all of his reportage on the Refugees Fleeing from Cerro Muriano constantly getting down of this car to make photographs of them. The rest of the car (out of image) is behind the lower right corner of the image, occupying approximately one third of the width of the Old Way to the Obejo Train Station, so the people appearing in the picture surround the car and go on with their march on the left.

This image of some families advancing together is very important and hugely revealing, since it shows Robert Capa´s great budding talent in the beginning of his career as a war journalist: He approaches frontally, getting close as much as possible to a group of fourteen people — most of them belonging to a same family: mothers, sons, daughters, little children, etc — who are roughly two kilometers in the north of Cerro Muriano, and advance across the old way towards Obejo Train Station and El Vacar village, loaded with large bags and baskets full of personal objects which they´ve been able to save before hastily fleeing from the village of Cerro Muriano, bombed by the Francoist aviation.

Capa shoots the group from a very near distance of around 4,75 m, probably at f/8, with his Leica II (Model D) rangefinder camera coupled to a Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5.

The timing on pressing the shutter release button is perfect and he photographs the six people heading the group in motion: two mothers, an approximately eleven years old girl taking on her left shoulder a white sack full of objects, an around sixteen years old girl grabbing her roughly five years old little brother (on the right of the image) with her left hand and an around four years old child being taken by the right hand of the woman leading the group.

But if this group of people picture is excellent,

even more important is what is happening near the upper right area of the image, where over the left shoulder of the girl most on the right of the group — as we see the picture — there´s a woman clad in black apparel who is taking something white in her arms is around fifteen meters behind the group and walks at top speed.

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

She is the same old woman as the one appearing in the picture 11) walking hastily while taking her grandchild in her arms!

Capa has already seen her. He does want to photograph both the group and the old woman marching holding the baby in her arms.

Therefore, he photographs the group with a fast shot and very quickly runs towards the right, until a position in which when he raises the camera again, the old woman walking at full throttle with the baby in her arms is already very near him, so he photographs her with an amazing right diagonal shot from a distance of around 3,5 meters, surprising the old woman deeply engrossed in thoughts and focused on saving the baby straightaway, so the Hungarian photojournalist manages to get unnoticed.

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

12b) Picture made by Capa located perpendicularly with respect to three people who advance towards the left of the image, bound for the Old Obejo Train Station and El Vacar.

Capa makes a fast shot, with a composition highlighting the pace of the old woman heading the group and visually separated by the telegraph post from the teenager boy wearing a typical Andalusian hat and his very little sister he is taking with his right hand.

It was made at very few meters from the place where Capa got the picture 11) of the old woman walking very fast and holding her grandchild in her arms, but from a perpendicular instead of diagonal angle.

Discovery of the location of this photograph : José Manuel Serrano Esparza in May of 2020.

Once more, Capa has proved his superb accuracy of timing on pressing the shutter release button of his camera, masterfully capturing the motion both in the mature woman on the left wearing a black large handkerchief to protect her head from the sun beams (whose left foot appears slightly out of focus and tremulous, conveying an apparent feeling of motion) and the young boy (whose left leg is completely stretched with its foot about to land on the ground, while the right one is about to find support in it).

Though the teenager is much younger than the old woman, Capa realizes that his walking speed is slower, since he has to adapt his march to keep up with his sister, whose left foot appears raising from the ground and also transmitting a feeling of movement).

On the other hand, Capa, always paying attention to every meaningful detail, has put into the left middle far area of the image the left hand of a woman (utterly exhausted by the very hard trek under a scorching sun) resting on a tree.

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

14) Picture made by Capa of a group of six people from different ages, walking towards the left of the image, bound for the Old Obejo Train Station and El Vacar. This photograph was taken at very few meters from the picture 12b.

Discovery of the location of this picture : José Manuel Serrano Esparza in May of 2020.

In spite of the suffocating heat with a temperature of 40º C, both the roughly fifty years old woman and the approximately twenty years old man heading the group are taking thick blankets to spend the night in the open air, while behind them there are two around twelve years old girls also walking hastily fleeing from Cerro Muriano. The last visible person in the photograph is a young mother wearing a white big handkerchief to protect herself from sun beams and taking her baby in arms.

Photo: Robert Capa

15) Photograph kindly sent to jmse by Frank Albrecht, one of the most important antiquariats in Germany, collector of original vintage copies and owner of Antiquariat Frank Albrecht in Schriesheim (Germany).

This was an unknown image until July of 2016 as to its authorship and location, made by Robert Capa with his Leica II (Model D) in a stretch of the old way Cerro Muriano-Obejo Train Station next to the Córdoba-Almorchón railway line, at roughly 3 km from Cerro Muriano village.

This picture was made by Capa from a slightly right diagonal angle and at a distance of approximately 2 meters.

In this image we can see from left to right a woman clad in a rather worn peasant dress (full of stains and a burst seam visible from the waist down) featuring a small squares design and whose sleeves are rolled up, who is taking in her ams the youngest of her children, an approximately 1 year old little girl (who is wearing a small white garment with a set of buttons on her back), whose inner area of her knees she is grabbing with her right arm, while she holds her buttocks with her left hand to be able to keep an unstable balance, momentarily a bit reinforced by the right arm of the little girl, who is defensively clinging it to her mother´s neck the best she can.

Because of the getaway rush and the panic brought about by the explosion of the bombs inside the village, this woman has set off leaving Cerro Muriano with her clothes on her back, without even having any time to put a diaper on her exceedingly young daughter and fit her a pair of shoes.

The distressed countenance of the mother, who does fear for the life of her very young girl, is heartbreaking. She is utterly focused on saving her little daughter as soon as possible, and Capa realizes it, getting the picture from within an incredibly short distance, whereas the mother is lost in fears, in such a way that she isn´t looking at the camera when Capa presses the shutter release button of his Leica II (Model D) with a Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 uncoated lens.

Two fingers of the little daughter can be seen hanging on the left of her buttocks, since the very young girl is already fairly tired and she hasn´t got stamina to raise her left arm and hand and clench them onto her mother´s neck.

Photo: Robert Capa

Five more people can be seen in the image:

- An around 9 years old boy, visible on far right of the picture, who is a son of the woman heading the group taking in arms her roughly 1 year old half-naked extremely young girl.

He is wearing a long sleeved dark shirt, almost wholly open (surrounded on its top by a thick string with some knots in its centre), very tattered and lacking some buttons, and plenty of smudges are visible on the lower left half of the shirt, because at that time, working conditions in the countryside were wretched, with workdays between 12 and 14 hours from sunrise to sunset and minimal payments of sheer survival by affluent landowners possesing vast majority of the lands, along with a very shoddy diet, particularly regarding the absence of proteins.

A context in which besides, children usually worked in the countryside since they were six years old helping their families, and the lack of economical resources made that frequently (with the exception of Sundays) all the members of peasant families had to wear the same clothes and footwear every day (with the resulting accelerated spoiling of them), so mothers (who got married very young and often had their first child between 18 and 22), after the exhausting countryside chores, were bound to constantly wash the clothes, so the workday of the peasant women at this time was really of 16-17 hours and they finished frazzled, getting old from their early thirties.

- Just behind the approximately nine years old boy, appears an around 5 years old girl, who is his sister and is walking grabbing her brother´s right hand with her left one. She is wearing a short-sleeved dark vest.

Capas´s shot is very fast, choosing diaphragm f/3.5 at full aperture and focusing on the mother being at the front and who is taking in arms her little daughter of roughly 1 year old, to turn her into the main character of the picture, leaving the background out of focus.

- In the background and already out of focus, you can see another young mother wearing an entirely white dress who is taking in arms her very young son being approximately 1,5 years old with upper white colour attire, and whom the mother has had some time to hastily put him a diaper on and fit him a pair of shoes.

This woman is holding her youngest son in a similar way to the woman leading the group, getting hold of the very young child on her right thigh with her left hand and grabbing his buttocks with her right hand, in an even more precarious equilibrium, with a risk of fall, for the fatigue has made that this around 1.5 year old child hasn´t the strength to hold onto his mother´s neck with any of his two arms and hands.

It´s a kind of photograph in which the image excellence from a technical viewpoint in terms of sharpness, contrast, direction and quality of light, etc, plays second fiddle and what matters is to be in the right place at the adequate moment, to approach to the subject/s as much as possible, to choose the most defining instant to press the shutter release button of the camera going unnoticed and managing to get a good picture.

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

15b) Vertical picture made by Capa to a young father who is walking holding his around three year old blonde daughter (wearing a black bow on her head) in his arms.

The very little girl has turned her head and is looking at Capa, smiling at him, while behind both of them, visible on the left of the image, there is a woman (probably the father´s wife) walking in the same direction.

In the right far background there are two out of focus men who have seemingly stopped to rest.

Before getting the picture, Capa has realized that the man is clad with a pyjamas, because the bombing of Cerro Muriano village surprised him taking a nap in the afternoon (known in Spain as " siesta " ), so the photographer chooses f/3.5 widest aperture and shoots from a very near distance.

The three people appearing in this image are approximately 2,5 kilometers from Cerro Muriano village and advancing across the old way going from Cerro Muriano to the old Obejo Train Station and El Vacar, marching on the right beside the Córdoba-Almorchón railway line.

Capa got this picture at very few meters from the spot where he made the photograph 11) of an old woman holding her granchild in arms.

Discovery of the location of this picture : José Manuel Serrano Esparza in May of 2020.

Photo: Robert Capa

16) Picture in which there is a young woman mounted on a mule and carrying her baby in her arms, while she is grabbing a big umbrella to protect herself and specially the baby from the sun beams. On the lower area of the image we can also see a dog with his tongue out because of the sweltering heat.

This photograph, whose authorship and location were unknown, appears in one of the pages of the book The Spanish People´s Fight for Liberty, compiled by A. Ramos Oliveira and published in 1937 by the Press Department of the Spanish Embassy in London.

Discovery of the authorship by Capa and location of this picture: José Manuel Serrano Esparza in May of 2010.

This image was created by Capa approximately between 15:20 h and 16:00 h in the afternoon of September 5, 1936, at around 900 meters from the north exit of Cerro Muriano, while the woman was advancing on the left of the Córdoba-Almorchón railway track which linked Córdoba, Cerro Muriano, the Obejo Train Station, El Vacar, etc.

The young mother is escaping with her baby from the Francoist air raid on Cerro Muriano and heads for the Obejo Train Station and El Vacar.

Page of the book Death in the Making from 1937, in which it is wrongly stated that this picture was made between Málaga and Almería, when it was really made by Robert Capa approximately 3 km before El Vacar Village and at a distance of 11 km from Cerro Muriano.

17) Picture appearing in the lower half of one of the pages of the book Death in the Making from 1937 and located between Málaga and Almería according to the text of the caption.

But that information is wrong, because this picture was not made by Capa between Málaga and Almería.

Four persons appear in the image: a young man wearing clear shirt and trousers, dark jacket and beret and white footwear, who is taking on his back, hanging from his neck, a little exhausted child that can´t walk more, while he grabs with his left arm the right arm of the woman advancing next to him (probably his mother, utterly clad in black attire and with a dark coif and a handkerchief around her neck) to help her walk, while on far right of the image an around ten years old girl can be seen marching near them and also northbound.

This photograph was not made in Cerro Muriano or its surroundings either.

It was made around eleven kilometers from that village and approximately three kilometers from El Vacar, by the stretch of the Córdoba-Almorchón railway line going between the Casa del Ronquillo Alto in the east and the Cortijo del Chirinero in the west, and was made by Capa on September 5, 1936, approximately at 17:00 h.

Discovery of the location of this picture: José Manuel Serrano Esparza in August of 2015.

The people depicted in it are inhabitants of Cerro Muriano escaping from the bombing of the village by Francoist aircraft, increased from around 15:00 h in the afternoon of that day. They have walked approximately 11 km, under a scorching sun, since they left Cerro Muriano.

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

Vintage 18 x 24 cm copy on Ilford photographic paper made by Csiki Weisz (Capa´s darkroom man and great friend of his) in Paris in 1936, kept by Cornell Capa and his wife Edith Schwartz and donated to the ICP of New York. The facial traits of the four people appearing in this picture are much more discernible than the one printed in the aforementioned book.

Once more, Capa captures masterfully a meaningful instant pervaded with fidgets and stress, since both the young man (who has been helping the child for eleven kilometers, taking him pickaback, which increases very much his fatigue and sweat while walking in the midst of a 40º C temperature) and the old woman — whose convulse and worried countenance acquires outstanding drama on being its right area in shadow — advance in precarious conditions, with a balance that will progressively be deteriorating.

They must still walk around three km to arrive at El Vacar.

In the original 35 mm black and white negative, the left arm and right foot of the young girl appear complete, which proves once more Capa´s remarkable speed of movements until approaching as much as possible to his subjects, generating very tight frames, something that is much more difficult to attain with a 50 mm standard lens than with a 35 mm wideangle lens.

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

Image published in the number 445 of Vu French illustrated magazine of September 23, 1936.

18) Horizontal photograph taken by Capa on September 5th 1936 at around 17:30 h in the afternoon in a stretch of the Córdoba-Almorchón railways located in Campo Alto estate at around 8,5 km in the north of Cerro Muriano and 2,5 km in the south of El Vacar, with a woman on the right of the image, taking a very little girl, still almost a baby, in her arms.

Photo: Robert Capa. © ICP New York

18 x 24 cm vintage copy made from original 24 x 36 mm format black and white negative by Csiki Weisz in Paris on Ilford paper, revealing the suffocating heat (with a temperature of 40º C) and tons of sun light prevailing at the moment and that the image reproduced inside Vu French illustrated magazine appeared much darker than it really was.

This mother is wearing an apron on her dress, since she hasn´t had time to take it off because of the hasty flight.

Behind her, on the left of the frame, we can see a very young girl walking just in front of her father and who is looking at Capa, and behind her we can see the husband of the woman and father of both girls, clad in black garment, cap and bearing some blankets to sleep outdoors during the night. He´s also looking at Capa.

Location of the area in which this picture was made: Patricio Hidalgo Luque in 2004.

Discovery of the exact location where the picture was made and photographic evidence: José Manuel Serrano Esparza on April 9, 2010.

This is a very dramatic image.

The woman isn´t looking at Robert Capa. Her sight is stray. She only wants to quickly advance towards El Vacar village, due to the great fear and anguish that seize her, because she fears for her daughters´ lives, particularly the youngest one.

It´s evident that they all have abandoned their home in Cerro Muriano village and have escaped full-blast to save their lives, and unlike other refugees, they haven´t had time to fill big bundles with their most valuable personal belongings.

Patricio Hidalgo Luque was the first to make the hypothesis that the picture could have been made in Campo Alto, which was verified with photographic evidence by José Manuel Serrano Esparza on April 9, 2010, finding through huge sweat and above all with big luck, the exact spot of the Cordoba-Almorchon railway on which Capa got this picture on a place in the area known as Campo Alto, near El Vacar.

19) Picture appearing on the upper half of one of the pages of the Death in the Making book from 1938.

The caption of that page states that the persons appearing in the picture are refugees fleeing from Málaga to Almería across the road bordering the coast, and that they´re walking 150 miles under a brutal sun.

But it is not true.

It was made in a place beside the Córdoba-Almorchón railway track located around four kilometers from El Vacar village.

Discovery of the location of this picture: José Manuel Serrano Esparza in August of 2014.

Perhaps there was an error by Jay Allen (whom Capa entrusted the translation of both his pictures captions and some of Gerda Taro also illustrating the book, whose design was made by André Kerstéz) regarding the location of the text accompanying the image.

Besides, Capa and Taro got pictures of the refugees coming from Málaga very near Almería and in Almería city, but they couldn´t arrive previously to photograph the escape from Málaga to Almería of approximately 150,000 persons across the coastal road and during which they were attacked by Italian and German aircraft and Francoist naval artillery on February 8, 9, 10 and 11, 1937.

Whatever it may be, it´s an image in which a total of eleven persons appear ( a father, a mother, a mature woman, four boys - being roughly between 4 and 14 years old - , a baby in arms and three girls - being approximately between 7 and 12 years old- ).

The action visible in the picture didn´t take place in February of 1937.

It happened on September 5, 1936.

They are inhabitants of Cerro Muriano hastily walking away from the bombing of the village by the Francoist aircraft, which was intensified between around 15:00-15:30 h in the afternoon of September 5, 1936.

But this photograph wasn´t made between Málaga and Almería.

And it wasn´t made in Cerro Muriano or its surroundings either.

It was made by Capa at approximately 4 km from El Vacar village (a Córdoba province village) placed at a distance of 11 kilometers from Cerro Muriano) on September 5, 1936 between around 17:30 h and 17:45 h in the afternoon, after an exceedingly hard trek of 10 km in full sunlight (with a temperature around 40º C) made by the people appearing in the image, who had started the flight from Cerro Muriano between 15:00-15:30 h in the afternoon.

Its location could be found by jmse thanks to a previous picture to this, the photograph 18), made by Capa approximately half a kilometer behind, next to the same Córdoba-Almorchón railway and in which four persons can be seen filling the whole frame — the young family mother with her baby in arms, her roughly seven year old elder daughter and hierhusband wearing black clothes and beret, who is taking some blankets on his right shoulder to sleep rough during the night — also visible in the far left area of the picture, beside the telegraph pole.

Therefore Capa got this picture of eleven people in a spot beside the Córdoba-Almorchón railway track located approximately 14 kilometers from Cerro Muriano and when the refugees depicted in the image still had to walk three more kilometers to arrive at El Vacar.

The Córdoba-Almorchón railway (nowadays virtually intact, 84 years after the events of Cerro Muriano), one of the most beautiful in Spain, equipped with steam locomotives driven trains, with some stretches of wonderful landscapes, specially between Cerro Muriano and Córdoba City and El Vacar and La Alhondiguilla, stopped being used as a passenger means of transport in 1974 and as a goods one during late eighties,

Stretch of the Córdoba-Almorchón railway track between the Old Obejo Train Station and El Vacar. The exceedingly dense vegetation visible in the image didn´t exist in 1936, and the refugees fleeing from Cerro Muriano village advanced walking on both sides of the track towards the background of the picture until reaching El Vacar.

so the tracks are currently mostly full of very abundant and thick vegetation made up by large thorny plants and medium size kermes oaks on both sides, the heat is unbearable and enhanced by the burning rails, and making comparative pictures of the area with respect to 1936 ( a time in which the railway line was fully operational) becomes very difficult, because the areas on both sides of the track were then uncluttered, without big brambles and chaparros, and there are many more trees presently than at that time.

Panoramic picture of the stretch of the old road near El Vacar and adjacent to the spot by the Córdoba Almorchón railway track, partially visible on the right of the image, utterly hidden by the abundant kermes oaks, brambles and exceedingly lush vegetation currently surrounding the tracks and located in the background, behind the old railroad sign with blades and from which Robert Capa made this photograph appearing on the upper half of one of the pages of the book Death in the Making from 1938.

Because of the smaller size in the photograph of the six persons (from a total of eleven) appearing on far left of the image of the page of Death in the Making book, which was reproduced by the editorial in New York in 1938 from a far superior vintage copy made by Csiki Weisz in Paris in 1937, I decided to examine the image with a Schneider Kreuznach 10x aspheric magnifying loupe optimized for visualization of pictures made with 35 mm cameras, trying to analyze specific areas of the photographs the best I could.

And there´s no doubt that the young woman holding her baby in arms (with a mature woman taking a basket appearing in front of her) and wearing a white apron - the bombing of Cerro Muriano surprised its inhabitants at lunch time- is the same person taking her baby in arms who appears in the already known picture made by Capa approximately 1 km behind next to another spot of the Córdoba-Almorchón railway in the area of Campo Alto.

And the family father clad in black attire and beret (husband of the woman holding her baby in arms) is also the same person, as happens with the around seven years old elder daughter of the couple, appearing between them in both photographs.

18 x 24 mm photographic copy of the same picture on black and white Ilford paper made by Csiki Weisz from the original 24 x 36 mm format negative in Paris in 1936, kept by Cornell Capa and his wife Edith Schwartz, revealing that the image was really much clearer than the reproduction appeared in the book Death in the Making of 1938, two years after the photograph was made by Robert Capa near El Vacar (Córdoba).

It is also noteworthy the presence of an approximately four or five years old child who appears on far left of the image, just behind the family father and who is almost 100% certainly a son of his and the woman holding the baby in her arms, which adds information to the previous image and enables to know that the couple has three children instead of two as was believed.

On the other hand, on comparing both images we can see an interesting fact:

In the previous picture made by Capa 1 km behind, in the area of Campo Alto, and in which only four persons appear (the mother with her baby in arms, the approximayely seven years old elder daughter and the father wearing black attire and beret who is taking some blankets on his right shoulder), the elder daughter and the father are looking at Capa while the photojournalist gets the picture,

but in this photograph (in which appear a total of 11 persons) very near El Vacar, there are five people looking at their right (from right to left of the image the second child of the group - being around 9 years old - , the approximately 12 years old girl walking behind him, the roughly 10 years old girl advancing just behind her, the young mother taking her baby in arms and the elder girl of the couple on the left of the image).

But they are not looking at Capa. They are staring at Bob´s left while he presses the shutter release button of his Leica II (Model D) with Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens.

Something is really attracting the attention of these five persons, who in spite of their huge fatigue and being sweating profusely, are gazing at somebody on Capa´s left.

I do believe that they are looking at Gerda Taro, a very pretty woman with a rather showy blonde hair, who is (out of image) very near Bob at the moment, on his left, and who always became the spotlight wherever she was.

After being photographed by Capa for the last time at around 3 km from El Vacar, the inhabitants of Cerro Muriano (a village placed at a distance of 11 km from the location in which Capa gets his last picture of refugees) went on their gruesome march on foot towards El Vacar village, ruptured by the exhaustion, sweat, fear and the huge grief of having been bound to leave their homes and hometown.

Entrance to El Vacar village, located at a distance of 14 km from Cerro Muriano and where the refugees arrived on September 5, 1936, after a dreadful forced trek of 14 kilometers in broad daylight in which the families suffered very much while simultaneously striving after managing to walk up to here and help the old men and women, with a number of moments of real anguish and despair being brought about, as well as being aware that many of them would have to sleep outdoors with the blankets they were taking, as it happened.

But the ordeal didn´t finish here, because following it, they had to do a new very harsh hike of 10 km up to Villaharta, under appalling conditions, with a high percentage of them suffering from cramps and huge fatigue, sweating all over, food and water which had begun to run out, etc

20) Picture made by Capa from inside a press car to two families of refugees on September 5, 1936, near what is nowadays the Los Pinares Restaurant, in a stretch of the N-432a Granada-Badajoz in the south of Cerro Muriano, with Las Malagueñas Hill approximately 1,5 km on the left of the tract of mount visible in the background on the right, while Torreárboles Hill is roughly 500 meters on the right.

Robert Capa and Gerda Taro advance within the back area of a press car driven by a chauffeur.

They have just crossed the village of Cerro Muriano inside this vehicle

and now they are in its southernmost area, in the stretch of the N-432a Granada-Badajoz road passing at very few meters from the Bar Restaurante Los Pinares (on the right, out of image) and the Córdoba-Cerro Muriano Bus N Stop a bit more upwards.

The two photojournalists go very well credited : Capa with a press card of Vu magazine and Gerda Taro with another one of Regards. Both French publications are at the moment two of the best illustrated magazines in the world.

Original press pass for the photographic coverage of the Spanish Civil War by Capa the Spanish Civil War and signed by Marie Jeanne Eisner, Director of Alliance Photo Agency in Paris, on August 11, 1936. It doesn´t bear the name of Gerda Taro, because as well as being the economical representative, the German photojournalist from Jewish descent, was aware of Capa´s great talent as a photographer and that he had a four year professional experience that had started in 1932, so Capa made most of the pictures. Only a year later, in 1937, Gerda Taro became a great social and war photographer, as verified by her extraordinary reportages in Valsequillo and during the Battle of Brunete. Picture made during one of the visits to the landmark exhibition This is War ! Robert Capa at Work at the Círculo de Bellas Artes of Madrid, curated by Cynthia Young and Kristen Lubben and held between July 14th and September 5th of 2010.

In addition, they have got a further press pass signed by Marie Jeanne Eisner, Director of Alliance Photo, the most important international photographic agency at the time being, along with Dephot Agency in Berlin, directed by Simon Guttman.

The vehicle inside which are Capa and Gerda Taro goes southbound, towards what is currently the roundabout with the letters Cerro Muriano, and approximately 500 m on the right (out of image) is Torreárboles Hill, the highest peak of the northern Córdoba mountain range, with its 692 m, visible nowadays from the surrounding area of Los Pinares Restaurant.

The car advances slowly on the right of the N-432a road (made with compacted sand) because two families (the heading young couple with three very young sons — particularly the one taken by his mother with her right hand — and a a little girl, while the husband walks behind them, and a second young mother behind the man in white clothes, who is taking her baby holding him high with her left arm while she grabs his other roughly three years old son with her right hand, helping him to keep balance during the march) are walking with opposite direction to the car, fleeing from combats, while behind them there is a parked bus that was captured two months before, at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, in Alicante province, by militiamen of CNT and FAI from Alcoy, two of whom are walking towards the right of the image and anxiously await the moment of escaping, because there is a great fear of the fierce Moroccan troops, their exceedingly fast encircling movements and their ruthless fight with fixed bayonets.

This time, Capa perceives that he is not going to be able to approach as much as possible to these persons he would want to photograph with a very tight frame and the upper and lower borders of the image respectively near their heads and feet, with his customary style of instinctive photographer, always striving upon being at the most adequate moment and place.

He does realize that if he gets out of the car, every member of the two families will detect his presence, will look at him and the picture will not be good.

That´s why Capa decides to stick his head out of the car´s back left window and shoots handheld at probably f/8 the best he can.

In spite of the extensive depth of field attained, the image is far from perfect from a technical viewpoint and the people appearing in it are slightly out of focus (specially from the middle area of the picture to the extreme right border) because of the stressful and uncomfortable position from which Capa gets the picture, sitting inside the car and getting his hands and camera outside the back left window of the vehicle.

But it doesn´t matter, because technical perfection of images in this kind of war photojournalism is not the key factor, but the defining instants captured and the conveyed messages.

We can see heading the group the father and mother (dressed in white garments) of the four children (three very young boys and a little girl, walking barefoot), while behind them another mother is trudging with strenuous effort, because she must hold her baby against her left shoulder with her left arm and hand, since she has to grab her other son (also very young, being roughly three years old) with her right arm, helping him keep balance as he walks.

This image is much more dramatic than it could seem at first glance, because Capa has realized that the mother leading the group, driven by her huge wish to save her children, is walking faster than her young husband.

This fact, in symbiosis with the appalling conditions in which the second mother is plodding, make up a highly meaningful image clearly showing the gruesome ordeal that the refugees fleeing from Cerro Muriano had to suffer that September 5, 1936, eighty-four years ago, to cover 14 km walking under an unbearable heat until reaching El Vacar.

On the other hand, when Capa presses the shutter release button of his camera and gets the picture, the left forward mudguard of the car, occupying the lower right corner of the picture, appears out of focus, because it is near the minimum focusing distance of the Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 lens coupled to his Leica II (Model) and out of the sharpness area.

It´s true that this time Capa hasn´t been able to get the picture surprising all of the persons appearing in it and go unnoticed as was always top priority for him, because the size of the car has drawn the attention of three of the nine people, who have detected his presence : the leading mother taking a huge basket (with vast majority of her personal belongings she has managed to save) hanging from her bended arm, the second child from left, and the little girl beside him.

But it isn´t less true that Capa has been able to capture a highly meaningful and dramatic instant faithfully depicting the horror of any war and the consequences it has, perticularly in the civil population suffering it.

Detail of the Leitz Elmar 50 mm f/3.5 used by Robert Capa between Cerro Muriano area, the Old Obejo Train Station and El Vacar on September 5, 1936. Its serial number 133594 is chiselled on the brass ring under which you can see the glass of the optical front element of the lens. Because of its intensive use throughout four years, it features some small scratches and cleaning marks on its forward area. © jmse

Capa probably shot at f/8 or f/11, diaphragms he used in a high percentage of his images that September 5, 1936 to guarantee as much sharpness as possible with a good depth of field (in spite of the very low sensitivity of the b & w film inside his camera), taking advantage of the very good sun light.

Anyway, as aforementioned explained, all the people appearing in the image are slightly out of focus (with the exception of the little child walking on far left of the picture, who advances holding a black blanket with his left arm to sleep out in the open), because the shooting stability with the photographer leaned as he can on the base of the back left window of the car is not the most desirable.

In spite of the remarkable accuracy of the built-in rangefinder of the Leica II (Model D) with every lens, hailed in this original advertisement of Ernst Leitz Wetzlar (Germany) from 1932, a significant percentage of the pictures made by Robert Capa in Cerro Muriano four years later on September 5, 1936, don´t feature a 100% precise focus, because his style of photographing was highly instinctive, with very fast shots, and the most important thing for him was to get the picture. © Leica Camera AG

This slightly out of focus vintage aesthetics of the pictures made with LTM39 Leica rangefinder cameras during thirties, forties and first half of fifties has been deeply studied by Michel Auer, great Swiss expert on History of Photography, who has always stated that in this kind of photojournalistic photography, the technical quality and perfection of images are not the most important factors, since the fundamental things are to capture the most defining instants and that the pictures convey messages and emotions.

Therefore, the modern, agile and dynamic war photojournalism was born in Cerro Muriano (Córdoba) on September 5, 1936 with the milestone reportage made by Capa to the refugees fleeing from the village when it was attacked by the Francoist aviation,

Rear view of the Leica II (Model D) number 90023 with which Capa made the pictures of Cerro Muriano refugees on September 5, 1936. It has the plug in the back typical in the earliest Leica II cameras and that had been originally created to be used with the Leica 1 Model A (introduction year 1925), Compur Leica (introduction year 1926) and Leica 1 Model C first version (introduction year 1930), all of them being non standardized models, in such a way that a skilful employee in Wetzlar could put the correct back focus through a hole in the plate enabling the use of a screwdriver from inside the camera, until 1931, year in which the back focus distance was standardized.

using a 24 x 36 mm format Leica II (Model D) rangefinder camera, a masterpiece of miniaturized engineering created by a genius of industrial design called Oskar Barnack, technical director of the German photographic firm Ernst Leitz Wetzlar.

84 years after the events, the photographic, historic and human dimension of the picture essay made by Capa in Cerro Muriano (Córdoba) that September 5, 1936 can be bluntly defined as extraordinary, with exceedingly meaningful images making up a significant part in the History of Photography.

Moreover, the refugees from Cerro Muriano became a turning point in the lives of Robert Capa and Gerda Taro.

These inhabitants of Cerro Muriano fleeing from war were very humble people bound to leave their previous lives, their houses and their memories behind, to start a very hard hike of 14 kilometers to reach the Old Obejo Train Station and El Vacar, walking next to the Córdoba-Almorchón railway.

Inevitably, these pictures made by Capa in Cerro Muriano area make any observer ask the following questions:

What was the destiny of these human beings escaping from war?

Where did they begin their new lives?

What was the whereabouts of their children?

Where did they live after the end of the Spanish Civil War?

How can a woman walk 14 km under a blazing sun, with a temperature of 40º C, holding her baby in a high position with only her left arm and hand while she takes her three years old other son to help him keep balance on walking and prevent him from falling on the ground?

How far can the love of a mother go, her maternal instinct for their children and her strenuous effort to save them from danger in a limit situation like the ones depicted by Capa with his images during the flight of refugees from Cerro Muriano?

How can so little children walk barefoot fourteen kilometers under a scorching sun ?

The children appearing in the images would be nowadays between approximately 88 and 92 years old.

How many of them are alive presently in 2020 without knowing that an already nomad photographer turned them into the main characters of the story, capturing them while they were fleeing from the war ?

Capa and Gerda Taro realized that the mettle of Cerro Muriano inhabitants escaping from the village that September 5, 1936 was undoubtedly a real feat and with the pictures he made them during their distressing exodus, Robert Capa immortalized for ever these human beings victims of war, whom he photographed with great respect and admiration, as historical and vital epicenter of a new very agile and dynamic war photojournalism that was born in Cerro Muriano, shooting handheld with very small and light 24 x 36 mm format Leica cameras (in the same way as their lenses), but able to create fabulous images full of sensitivity and empathy, in which top priority was at every moment to highlight Cerro Muriano inhabitants and the village itself as the most significant main characters.

As a matter of fact, Robert Capa told different times to his brother Cornell and his wife Edie Schwartz during forties and early fifties that his photographic career as a war photographer began in Cerro Muriano (Córdoba) on September 5, 1936 when he made the pictures of the refugees fleeing the village.

That´s why after the death of Capa in Thai Binh (Vietnam) on May 25, 1954, Cornell Capa and Edie Schwartz fought tooth and nail (particularly during the second half of seventies and eighties) to find as many vintage copies as possible of pictures made by Bob in Cerro Muriano, that they would subsequently give away to the ICP of New York that Kornell had founded in 1974.

All the abundant new findings of the locations where Capa made the pictures that September 5, 1936 (along with the discovery of the authorship by Capa of some very important images whose author and location were unknown) made between 2008 and 2020, wouldn´t have been possible without the great effort made by Cornell Capa and his wife Edie, specially the latter, who for many years, thanks to her great visual memory with images and working from contact sheets, single-handedly organized and maintained Robert Capa´s negatives and prints within Cornell´s modest apartment in Manhattan, located in Lower Fifth Avenue, until the foundation of the ICP of New York in 1974), including the exceedingly valuable copies on 18 x 24 cm b & w Ilford photographic paper made by Csiki Weisz from the 24 x 36 mm original negatives exposed by Capa in Cerro Muriano.

That strenuous effort by both of them to find and keep as many pictures as possible created by Robert Capa in Cerro Muriano, has made feasible to greatly rebuild the events of that September 5, 1936 with high accuracy, hugely boosting the significance in the History of Photography of the picture essay made by Capa to the refugees fleeing from that small village placed 15 km in the north of Córdoba city.

But a further key factor that has made feasible to unveil the real magnitude and importance (much bigger than was thought in 2007) of the milestone reportage Flight of the Refugees from Cerro Muriano made by Capa on September 5, 1936, has been the diachronic toil of two women:

a) Anna Winand, assistant to Cornell Capa at the ICP of New York between 1974 and 2008. A driving force in herself featuring a great talent as a picture editor and archivist, as well as clearly beating Cornell (boasting the same tremendous will and working ability as his mother Julianna Henrietta Berkovits, but being a bit chaotic) in terms of organization and remembering where all Bob´s vintage prints and original negatives were.

Her role was fundamental from the very foundation of the ICP and above all when because of the advanced age of Cornell Capa and Edie Schwartz from early nineties (when both of them were already in their eighties) she had to greatly classify Robert Capa´s original negatives and prints, including some unknown copies on Ilford photographic paper of pictures made by Capa in Cerro Muriano who were made by Csiki Weisz in Paris in late 1936.

b) Cynthia Young (Curator of the Robert Capa Archive at the ICP of New York), whose activity has been fundamental for the outstanding enhacement of Capa´s photographic ouvre significance and knowledge from 2007 hitherto.

Just after the death of Richard Whelan (one of the best historians of photography of all time, as well as curator of the Robert Capa and Cornell Capa Archive for many decades and author of Robert Capa biography published by Ballantine´s books in 1985 and an extraordinary 688 page biography on Alfred Stieglitz ) in 2007, Cynthia Young (until then Assistant Curator at the ICP) had to step in to organize the worldwide exhibition This is War ! Robert Capa at Work whose text had been completed by Whelan.

This was an exceedingly difficult toil to accomplish, but she did it very brilliantly, with a tremendous working ability, utter commitment and an outstanding knowledge of Capa´s collection of pictures, starting a new professional stage as Curator of the Robert Capa Archive at the ICP of New York from 2007 until now that has hugely strengthened the importance of Robert Capa´s photographic legacy through milestone books like The Mexican Suitcase (2010, ICP Steidl, greatly stemming from a three years very hard, passionate and enthralling work with the 4,500 original black and white negatives of pictures created by Capa, Gerda Taro, David Seymour Chim and Fred Stein making up that trove of images that had been lost for almost seventy years, immersing herself in the material between January 2008 and September of 2010, and providing very valuable information to undestand its huge historical and photographic significance.

In addition, she edited in 2014 the landmark book Capa in Colour, who meant to practical effect the unveiling of the colour photographic production of the Hungarian photojournalist, with a painstaking labour of identification, cleaning, scanning and top-notch level of reproduction from the original colour slides, both 35 mm Kodachromes and 6 x 6 cm medium format Ektachromes.

The upshot of it is that Cynthia Young has become the greatest expert ever on the photographic production of Robert Capa, something truly praiseworthy, because Richard Whelan was a genius, the scholar par excellence on him, and had set the bar very high.

Three attendants to the landmark exhibition This is War ! Robert Capa at Work held at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid between July 14 and September 5 of 2010 watch two of the pictures made by Capa in Cerro Muriano on September 5, 1936.

Whatever it may be, the reportage made by Robert Capa to the refugees of Cerro Muriano (Córdoba) fleeing from the war is undoubtedly one of the most significant photojournalistic picture stories in the History of Photography, and however incredible it may seem, it has presently turned this small village 15 km in the north of Córdoba City into one of the most important places in the world to be able to understand Robert Capa´s photographic work, to such an extent that enthusiasts of photography all over the world relish once and again these timeless images whose main characters, such as was desired by both Capa and Gerda Taro, go on being the inhabitants of Cerro Muriano.

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Sunday, July 4, 2021

CERRO MURIANO SEPTEMBER 5, 1936 : ROBERT CAPA PHOTOGRAPHS THE FLIGHT OF THE REFUGEES FROM THE VILLAGE WITH A LEICA II (MODEL D). BIRTH OF THE MODERN AND AGILE WAR PHOTOJOURNALISM

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Pages

Sunday, July 4, 2021

CERRO MURIANO SEPTEMBER 5, 1936 : ROBERT CAPA PHOTOGRAPHS THE FLIGHT OF THE REFUGEES FROM THE VILLAGE WITH A LEICA II (MODEL D). BIRTH OF THE MODERN AND AGILE WAR PHOTOJOURNALISM

To comment or to read comments please scroll past the ads below.All ads present items of interest to Leica owners._______________________________________________________________________

CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OFRED DOT CAMERASwww.leicastoremiami.com

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Inventive Camera Bags for All of Your Gear http://www.tamarkin.com/https://www.tamarkinauctions.com/Buy vintage Leica cameras from America's premier Leica specialist www.tamarkin.com http://www.tamarkin.com/leicagallery/upcoming-show

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CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF
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EDDYCAM - the first and only ergonomic elk-skin camera strap
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Inventive Camera Bags for All of Your Gear

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