With great hubris, Rick Smolan and David Cohen were going to reinvent photojournalism. The first tactic of this radical makeover: ignore conventional reportage by dispersing photographers to randomly selected venues and inviting them to burn as much film as possible in a 24-hour period. […]
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The myth of Robert Capa’s D-Day, as publicly initiated by Capa himself, constitutes a classic example of the form of fraud referred to disdainfully by those in the military as “stolen valor.” […] This definitely positions Chris Boot as a member in good standing of the Capa Consortium, that cluster of institutions and individuals committed to perpetuating the Capa myth. […] Clearly, we still have much work to do if we hope to dislodge this fable from the mythology of photojournalism and photo history — not to mention the larger D-Day into which it has become so thoroughly woven. Yet there’s grounds for hope, that “thing with feathers.” […] Magnum’s biography is not just a narrative of funny anecdotes, personal heroism, or critical interventions aimed at the cognoscenti. To me there’s a real narrative, a true set of values behind the myth. It’s a frat-house given to sophomoric antics with members sometimes capable of making extraordinary pictures. […] |
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