Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/15

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Subject: Re: [Leica] RE: Staged Photographs: Iwo Jima
From: Eric Welch <ewelch@ponyexpress.net>
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 10:49:09 -0500

At 05:43 AM 9/15/99 -0600, George Huczek wrote:
>Another Capa shot, taken within a short time of the famous photo in
>question, is definitely staged, and it has some similarities in its
>composition.

This is not true, and you're a bit out of date. They have recently proven 
the picture is without question authentic. Though Capa was known for his 
wild stories, I don't think he ever wavered, or dissembled on this photo.

They found the person who was killed in the photo by identifying the ammo 
pouch he was wearing on his hip. Turns out it was only made in one town. 
And when the researchers went to that town, they found the family of the 
man killed, and sure enough, he was killed that day at that location that 
Capa reported.

This was in a story in Brill's Content last year. I'm leaving out a lot of 
details on how the detective work was done, but it is extremely convincing.

The "staged" photo you refer to was nothing of the sort. It was guys 
training away from the combat zone.

Eric Welch
St. Joseph, MO

http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch

A picture is the expression of an impression. If the beautiful were not in 
us, how would we ever recognize it?