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Cornell Capa

Cornell Capa
Usage Conditions Apply
Artist
Miriam Troop, 27 Apr 1917 - 19 Nov 2016
Sitter
Cornell Capa, 10 Apr 1918 - 23 May 2008
Date
1999
Type
Drawing
Medium
Graphite, colored pencil, crayon and charcoal on paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 34.5 x 35cm (13 9/16 x 13 3/4")
Topic
Costume\Dress Accessory\Eyeglasses
Artwork
Interior\Office
Cornell Capa: Male
Cornell Capa: Visual Arts\Artist\Photographer
Cornell Capa: Journalism and Media\Editor
Cornell Capa: Visual Arts\Founder
Cornell Capa: Visual Arts\Visual arts administrator\Art museum administrator\Art museum director
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of John G. Morris
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Object number
S/NPG.2001.98
Exhibition Label
Born Budapest, Hungary
In his thirty years as a photojournalist, Cornell Capa aspired “to make images that educate and change the world, not just document it.” Following wartime service as a photographer, he joined the staff of Life magazine in 1946, moving on to Magnum Photos in 1954. Focusing his lens on politics, he covered the Perón regime in Argentina, the Six-Day War in Israel, and the electoral campaigns of John and Robert Kennedy, Adlai Stevenson, and Nelson Rockefeller. He also explored wide-ranging social issues, such as the destruction of indigenous Amazon cultures and Wall Street’s ruthless young renegades. This portrait shows Capa with photographs he made of Bolshoi Ballet dancers in Moscow and an impoverished father and daughter in El Salvador. On the wall behind him hangs a photograph of his beloved older brother, the war photographer Robert Capa, in whose honor Capa founded the International Center of Photography in 1974.
Nacido en Budapest, Hungría
En sus treinta años como reportero gráfico, Cornell Capa aspiró a “crear imágenes que educaran y cambiaran el mundo, y no sólo lo documentaran”. Tras servir en la guerra como fotógrafo, se unió al equipo de la revista Life en 1946 para pasar, en 1954, a trabajar para Magnum Photos. Centrando su lente en la política, realizó la cobertura del régimen de Perón en Argentina, la Guerra de los Seis Días en Israel y las campañas electorales de John y Robert Kennedy, Adlai Stevenson y Nelson Rockefeller. También exploró una amplia variedad de problemáticas sociales como la destrucción de las culturas indígenas del Amazonas y los despiadados jóvenes renegados de Wall Street. Este retrato muestra a Capa con la fotografías que tomó de las bailarinas del Ballet Bolshoi en Moscú y de un padre e hija pobres de El Salvador. En la pared que tiene detrás, hay colgada una fotografía de su querido hermano mayor, el fotógrafo de guerra Robert Capa, en cuyo honor Capa fundó el Centro Internacional de Fotografía en 1974.
Data Source
National Portrait Gallery
Location
Currently not on view