In short, we have clear evidence of a pattern of intimidation and obstruction of independent Capa research by individuals at the very top of the ICP chain of command, going back to the institution’s origins. This does not bode well for the future of Capa scholarship, nor for the future of ICP. Moreover, it raises serious questions about ICP’s claim to credible status as a research institution. […]
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As our research has made clear, ICP has to this day assiduously avoided even the most elementary investigation of Capa’s D-Day materials. Eschewing such inquiry effectively constitutes a passive obstruction of research. But Cornell Capa also took an active, aggressive approach to that same end. […] After Robert Capa’s death, Cornell Capa took physical possession of his negatives, handling licensing rights for Robert’s photos and writings, including passages from Slightly Out of Focus. This ensured that the string of subsequent Capa books, and books in which Capa’s images appeared — whether or not published directly through Cornell — frequently reiterated the D-Day myth. […] By any standards, the touring Robert Capa retrospective launched by Cornell Capa via Magnum in 1960 proved an overwhelming success. The show toured in three sets through 1969, with stops at no fewer than 100 venues across North America and Europe: museums, college and university galleries and student unions, high schools, banks, churches, public libraries, even county fairs. […] The promulgation of a fictionalized version of Robert Capa’s actions on D-Day and the subsequent fate of his Omaha Beach negatives constitute the worm in the apple, the rot at the very core of the foundation myth of the International Center of Photography — the Center’s “original sin,” as it were, the first skeleton in its closet. Known to ICP’s founder, Cornell Capa, Robert’s younger brother, as far back as 1944, the truth got papered over long before ICP was even a gleam in Cornell’s eye. […] |
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