This sequence of events partially explains the mystery of why it took 15 hours after the Chase anchored in Weymouth Bay for Capa’s film to reach LIFE’s assistant picture editor John Morris in London. Seven to eight of those hours were consumed by the simple challenge of Capa getting off the USS Samuel Chase and getting his film to the press message center. […]
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It is now about 57 years since Bob admitted to me that he had “taken a swing” at the guy [John Morris], so I am really hazy about this. Bob never went into details and although this loss [of his D-Day film] was obviously an event he would never forget, his philosophy was that “Life is too short to hate anyone or bear a grudge.” […] Capa resigned his lucrative staff position at LIFE in January 1947 to go freelance once more. He may have made that choice in part so as not to bite the hand that fed him when his fictionalized memoir, “Slightly Out of Focus,” came out that fall, with its first formal, on-the-record claim directly from him that the magazine’s London staff had ruined his D-Day films. […] Donald Winslow wrote recently in a May 11 Facebook post, “Investigative journalism is a lifetime of uncovering other people’s and government’s lies.” This from the editor of the official journal of the National Press Photographers Association who commissioned a feature article dismissive of our research, violating every tenet of journalistic ethics regarding full disclosure and conflict of interest by publishing the result in “News Photographer.” This man has no shame; his hypocrisy truly knows no bounds. […] Capa’s two photos have become iconic images symbolizing inertia, fear and even the failure of nerve of the common soldier on the beaches of Normandy. What a travesty that these men who made decisive contributions to the success of the campaign, despite every danger and hindrance, should have become poster boys for lack of resolve under fire. And all as the result of a caption that told the wrong story. […] |
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