CAPA, CORNELL / Kornél Friedmann Budapest, April 14, 1918 - May 23, 2008, New York

Photo reporter, photographer. Robert Capa's brother.

Between 1928 and 1936 he studied at the Madách Grammar School in Budapest, originally made for a doctor. In 1936, after graduation, he traveled to Paris for language learning and became a photographer in Imre Fehér (Emeric Fehér) studio. He hadn't learned much in French, because they always talked in Hungarian, but he had thoroughly learned the profession while he was working in the dark room with his brother's Spanish pictures. “There were two random directions toward photography that were independent of my will. One chance is that I was born in Hungary, in a small country where people speak a language that nobody understands outside the country. Here, the limits of learning and development have become apparent, and the uniqueness of language has brought about the need for a more universal communication tool. Another influencing factor was my brother Bob's example. ” He moved to America in 1937, and he also took the Capa name. Between 1937 and 1941 he worked in the Life's photo lab, and his brother's affairs manager at the Pix agency. In 1940 he married. In 1943 he received US citizenship. During the II. World War he photographed in a sergeant rank by the Photo Intelligence the US Air Force. After 1945 he became a professional photographer. In 1948, he was the Life’s photo reporter in South America,  and in England. His Life's photograps can be grouped around three main topics: Latin America's political and economic life, England, the political life of the US. In 1954 when his brother, Robert Capa death in Vietnam he left the Life, but later they also published his photograph (1955-57: Israel; 1956: Equador Auka Indians). In 1954, he was a member of the Magnum Photo Agency and then President of 1956-1959. In 1955, after the death of his brother and friend David Seymour (Chim), he created a foundation with Chim's sister: Robert Capa-David Seymour Photographic Foundation, which was transformed in 1966, together with the widow of Robert Bischof, into the memory of the three photographers for Found for Concerned Photography. In 1967 he photographed the six-day war in Israel. In addition to his photojournalist activities, hhe organized exhibitions, launched photo courses, published publications (eg 1967: The Committed Photographer, I-II, Riverside Museum, New York, and then he travel around the world; 1972: Behind the Great Wall. Photos from China from 187 to the Present, Metropolitan Museum, New York). The most important work of his oeuvre, opened in New York on April 14, 1974, is the International Center of Photography, which has become one of the real centers of Photography over time, and what he managed until he retired until 1995. It has exhibition halls, library, research facilities, lecture halls, photo archives. In 1963, the Camera was invited to select some of his works. Then he said, “I am not best at individual recordings. My most effective works are series. My photos are words that make up sentences, and then the story comes out of these sentences. ”In almost everything, his brother is the opposite. He was also a photographer, but he wasn't the dauntless courage. He is not a world traveler hobo, but a creator-founder whose name is associated with the creation and operation of the International Center of Photography in New York, Magnum's management, countless good books and exhibitions around the world. He became one with his brother's name so that no one knows his original name today.

Awards:

1968: Photojournalism Award

1975: American Society of Magazine Photographers Award.

Exhibitions:

1951: Memorable Life Photographers, MOMA New York

1963: J.F.Kennedy: In memoriam, USA

1973: Jerusalem: City of Mankind, Israel

1977: Fotografische Kunstlerbildnisse. Ludwig Museum, Cologne

1980: Photography of the 50's, USA

1999: Capa & Capa Ethnographic Museum Budapest

2006: Individual exhibition at the 36th International Photo Festival

His pictures in public collections:

His photographs are kept by Life's archive, Magnum, ICP, MOMA

His Books:

Naya Pines -Cornell Capa: Retarded Children Ca Be Helped, Channel Press, New York, 1957; Elisabeth Elliot-Cornell Capa: Throught Gates of Splendor. Harper and Row, New York 1957; Let Us Begin. The First 100 Days of the Kennedy Administration. Simon and Schuster, New York, 1961; Cornell Capa-Robert Russell: Farewell to Eden. Harper and Row, New York, 1964; Cornell Capa - J. Mayone Stycos: Margin of Life. (Population and Poverty in the Americas) Grossman Publishers, New York, 1974; Cornell Capa (I Grandi Fotografi Serie Argento) Fabbri, Milan, 1983; Richard Whelan-Cornell Capa: Cornell Capa Photographs. The Bulfinch Press Book, Little, Brown and Company Boston, London, Toronto