This document proves that John Morris was fully aware of, and an active participant in, that SHAEF/MoI censorship system, which fact he conveniently failed to mention in all of his subsequent accounts of the fictional darkroom disaster that supposedly “ruined” Capa’s D-Day films. […]
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Recent research has uncovered a treasure: the protocols for annotating and processing incoming films from the photographers assigned by LIFE magazine to cover the D-Day invasion. It is dated May 8, 1944, less than a month before the event. […] In the end, it seems fittingly ironic that the Occam’s-Razor explanation for all of Capa’s missing D-Day negatives turns out to be the scissors of the censor. The legend of the lost negatives resulted from nothing more or less than the needs of Capa’s outsize ego. […] I have come to believe that Capa’s actions on D-Day resulted from considered planning and calculated risks. He knew that he would have only a short time on the beach. He knew that he had to get back quickly to some ship — preferably the Chase, but if not another — in the convoy scheduled to depart at noon for the English coast. That represented his only hope of getting his films to LIFE on time. […] |
 SPJ Research Award 2014 |
Eyes on Ukraine (1)
Though by definition I can only observe the war in Ukraine from afar, I don’t think of myself as merely a spectator, nor of this as a spectator sport. Count me instead as a concerned citizen of the world — a world that the outcome of this catastrophe will affect deeply. And someone who sees democracy worldwide at stake here. […]