Death in the Making is a photographic book by Gerda Taro and Robert Capa that documents the Spanish Civil War. It was published by Covici-Friede while the conflict was still underway in 1938. It is dedicated to Taro, who died in the battlefield the year prior.[1] The book also includes photographs by David Seymour and André Kertész. Though the photographs are credited to Robert Capa, Capa has written that the work was a collective project by both photographers and that the photographs “are interspersed and unattributed.” Taro is also thought to have been excluded from authorship for fear that publishers would take a female photographer less seriously.[1] This book helped to cement Capa's and Taro's reputations as leading war photographers and pioneers in photojournalism.
Description
The book's photograph the daily events of the war from the anti-fascist, Republican side of the conflict that battled the Nationalists led by Francisco Franco.[2] The sections of the book include such titles as "The War of the Man on the Street", "Front in Andalusia", and "Women in the War."[3] Journal-like entries accompany the photographs, describing the content of the photographs in a stream of consciousness style. [4]
At age 26, Gerda Taro is purported to be the first female photographer killed in a war front. The book's dedication reads: “For Gerda Taro, who spent one year at the Spanish front – and who stayed on.”
[3]
Second edition
A second facsimiled edition of the book took place in 2020, organized and with an introductory essay by Cynthia Young. This new edition included a modern and fulsome inventory of the photographs, and shed light on those taken by Gerda Taro and David Seymour.[2][5]
_title_page.jpg){kind=link}