by Silvio Zappi

ARTICOLO IN ITALIANO >>

Gerda Taro in Guadalajara Juli 1937

Gerda Taro (real name Gerta Pohorylle) was born in Germany in 1911. She is defined as one of the first war photographer and she is still remembered for his political commitment to opposition to fascism. Jewish and coming from a middle-class family, was arrested in 1933 accused of propaganda against the Nazi regime and subversive activities; once at liberty soon finds refuge in the Paris of the '30s, home of a cultural and artistic enthusiasm fueled by a variety of motivated artists, intellectuals and photographers from around the world.

It was in Paris that met the man of her life, Endre Friedmann, a Hungarian photographer, Jewish like her and two years younger, in search of affirmation. A photographer as there were many, but that soon Gerda turned into legend. In fact, she proposed to Friedmann a commercial expedient inventing an imaginary successful photographer, and pretending (under the name of Gerda Taro) as assistants of the unreal character. Unfortunately, the strategy brought international fame only to him, after few years he became the greatest war photographer of all time - in fact the name of the invented photographer was Robert Capa.

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Sometimes between oblivion and fame there is just an ordinary event. It was the year 2007, and during an auction, for a few hundred dollars, Mr. John Maloof, bought something like 40,000 negatives of unpublished images. Shots made by a nanny between the '50s and '80s, that narrate life of people living in the largest American cities streets.

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