"The Mexican Suitcase," if you hear that title one thing instantly jumps into your head:
Nope. This is so not about cocaine. In fact, this has absolutely nothing to do with cocaine.
If you are a photography nerd you already know what "The Mexican Suitcase" is. Chances are you know all about it & were giddy as a school girl when you first heard that they found it.
The story behind it is interesting, it is fascinating, & it revolves around a liar, liar, pants-on-fire that is to the photography world what Ansel Adams is to the freshman dorms.
If you are into journalism, you probably already know the story as well.
We are talking about this guy:
His name is Robert Capa & Ansel Adams called him a coward & a fraud.
Actually, no, that is a lie.
His real name is Endre Friedmann but everyone knows him as the famous American Photographer named "Robert Capa."
That American thing, is also a lie. He was really Hungarian but shhhh. Don't tell anyone, it was those lies that made him famous.
Well, lies, talent, & Alfred Hitchcock.
If you are a film buff, you know him better as Jimmy Stewart:
Well, maybe not Jimmy Stewart as much as professional photographer L.B. "Jeff" Jefferies.
Robert Capa was the name in photography & he offered some really useful advice on the subject:
"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not standing close enough."
In today's language it translates into: "Grow some balls."
That motto was the reason he took some of the most iconic images of his time. You've seen them before. It really started with the Spanish Civil War:
Is that close enough for you?
Ansel Adams called him a coward & a fraud because, until recently, he couldn't produce the negative of his most iconic image & lets face, Adams didn't have the balls take take part in D-Day unarmed, or at all, & we will get to that...both thats.
Back before the Spanish Civil War Endre Friedmann was still a struggling photographer in Paris France. He'd sell a few pictures, pawn his camera to pay rent, buy his camera back & sell a few more.
No one wanted to hire a poor Hungarian photographer. People wanted famous American photographers.
Remember, this was back in the day. Back in the day before we had the interweb.
Endre Friedmann could not get a job to save his life.
But Endre Friedmann could get his boss, "Robert Capa" the famous American photographer a job. So he went to a Paris newspaper, told them that he represented the fictitious Robert Capa, showed them some of his work...
...& persuaded them to hire a man that didn't really exist.
Capa, by the way, means "shark" in his native Hungarian...but the French couldn't speak Hungarian & the name sounded American enough.
So the French brought him two tickets to Spain to cover the Spanish Civil War. One ticket for Robert Capa & one for his assistant Endre Friedmann.
There was an empty seat on the flight. Endre Friedmann was left in Paris & Robert Capa was born. You know, the famous American photographer who, at the time, could hardly speak English.
Fame ultimately followed & Robert Capa was suddenly in demand.
The thing is, yeah, he took a hell of a lot of pictures of the Spanish Civil War, but by the time he got back to Paris, World War II started.
Robert Capa didn't know if he could get a ticket out before the Nazis arrived & he knew for a fact that Endre Friedmann would neither be allowed to leave, or really survive the invasion.
So he gave all of his negatives to the Mexican Ambassador to France, who could get out.
And then he made it as far as England before he got a job working as a war correspondent again, because by that time he really was a famous American photographer....& a bit of an adrenaline junkie.
So he learned how to speak English & started to make an even bigger name for himself, well, for Robert Capa. Endre Friedmann never made it to England.
But, they both ended up making it back to France.
In fact, they stormed the beach at Omaha....several times.
Robert Capa was on the first assault, ran out of film, went back to England, got more film & stormed Omaha again...& again...& again.
Unfortunately, by that point in time Endre Friedmann had really become Robert Capa & the fame gave him money for the first time in his life & he hired a real assistant...for his fake persona...who was now a celebrity. This assistant was a horrible photographer & ruined a LOT of his images when he brought them into the lab.
So what we have left of Robert Capa's many charges up & down Omaha Beach are really a shadow of what they could have been.
Shadows that are still considered the best pictures of D-Day.
The man sort of really enjoyed getting shot at.
Sick, right?
While he was doing all of this, the Ambassador of Mexico was dieing of a heart attack & the Spanish Suitcase was lost to time...along with the negative that spawned the very public attack Adams made against Capa.
But by then, no one took the accusation of "coward" seriously, given, well, D-Day.
But, we'll get to that later.
It turns out that, after World War II, everyone really assumed he was an actual American & for the first time in his life, he went back to his home...in America...which he had never set foot in before.
So what do you do when you are a famous American photographer that has never been to America before?
You go straight to Hollywood with all the other really great liars.
It was that or politics, right?
And you almost instantly start a passionate love affair with a Hollywood starlet:
Ingrid Bergamn, for those of you that don't recognize her.
But you are a war correspondent & Ingrid sort of wants you around & you really need a job, so you start to work for one of the most famous directors in the world.
And he likes you so much that he takes a short story: It Had to Be Murder written by Cornell Woolrich turns it into a movie written by John Michael Hayes & rewrites the main character to reflect you & your love affair with Ingrid Bergman.
Thus giving the world:
With Jimmy Stewart playing Robert Capa & Grace Kelly playing Ingrid Bergman & the broken leg actually happened pretty much the same way. Capa worked as a consultant to Hitchcock, on the side, & Bergman bitched to Hitchcock About Capa's near instantaneous & horribly irritating cabin fever.
Poor Hitchcock got it in both ears.
And this is great until Steven Spielberg pilfers the plot & makes a train-wreck of a modernized version:
And suddenly Robert Capa becomes a 17 year-old snot played by Shia LaBeouf & the lawsuit is still in the courts.
You try to make a name taking the same old boring pictures as everyone else
Things seem to be working out, you're settling down & getting work in Hollywood alongside Alfred Hitchcock.
The idyllic life...except, well, idol is the key word & a beautiful girlfriend & a good job & celebrity status are really fucking boring compared to, well, the decade you spent living on the front lines.
Its not so much PTSD as it is, well, there's no rush. You want that thrill of the war again.
But, for some reason, you like to get shot at, & you think that getting shot at is a lot more fun than fucking Ingrid Bergman, so you sit her down & have a heart-to-heart:
"You're boring, bitch, I'm going to Vietnam."
And she dumps you flat for someone with a better life-expectancy.
Things are going pretty good for you in Vietnam. Like the Spanish Civil War & World War II, you are the most famous photographer in the war.
Until you step on a landmine when you are out on patrol & boom!
Both Robert Capa & Endre Friedmannd die tragically & the world thinks that there are no more Robert Capa photographs.
But there is still the legend. The legend of the Mexican Suitcase.
For a long time it is the holy grail of the photography world. So much so that some people don't even believe it's real.
And then the Ambassador's family dies & they have an estate sale &, in 2007, the Mexican Suitcase shows up in the hands of people that recognize it for what it really is.
The world suddenly is flush with new images of the one great photographer in the Spanish Civil War, the man that was embedded from start to finish.
Yes...the negative is there & the jealous accusations of a lesser photographer are finally put to rest.
And, in 2011, a woman named Trisha Ziff made a documentary on the suitcase that no one, including myself, has ever seen:
But if anyone can track it down please tell me where to find it.
I'll leave you with this:
If you are a photography nerd you already know what "The Mexican Suitcase" is. Chances are you know all about it & were giddy as a school girl when you first heard that they found it.
The story behind it is interesting, it is fascinating, & it revolves around a liar, liar, pants-on-fire that is to the photography world what Ansel Adams is to the freshman dorms.
If you are into journalism, you probably already know the story as well.
We are talking about this guy:
Actually, no, that is a lie.
His real name is Endre Friedmann but everyone knows him as the famous American Photographer named "Robert Capa."
That American thing, is also a lie. He was really Hungarian but shhhh. Don't tell anyone, it was those lies that made him famous.
Well, lies, talent, & Alfred Hitchcock.
If you are a film buff, you know him better as Jimmy Stewart:
Robert Capa was the name in photography & he offered some really useful advice on the subject:
"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not standing close enough."
In today's language it translates into: "Grow some balls."
That motto was the reason he took some of the most iconic images of his time. You've seen them before. It really started with the Spanish Civil War:
Ansel Adams called him a coward & a fraud because, until recently, he couldn't produce the negative of his most iconic image & lets face, Adams didn't have the balls take take part in D-Day unarmed, or at all, & we will get to that...both thats.
Back before the Spanish Civil War Endre Friedmann was still a struggling photographer in Paris France. He'd sell a few pictures, pawn his camera to pay rent, buy his camera back & sell a few more.
No one wanted to hire a poor Hungarian photographer. People wanted famous American photographers.
Remember, this was back in the day. Back in the day before we had the interweb.
Endre Friedmann could not get a job to save his life.
But Endre Friedmann could get his boss, "Robert Capa" the famous American photographer a job. So he went to a Paris newspaper, told them that he represented the fictitious Robert Capa, showed them some of his work...
Capa, by the way, means "shark" in his native Hungarian...but the French couldn't speak Hungarian & the name sounded American enough.
So the French brought him two tickets to Spain to cover the Spanish Civil War. One ticket for Robert Capa & one for his assistant Endre Friedmann.
There was an empty seat on the flight. Endre Friedmann was left in Paris & Robert Capa was born. You know, the famous American photographer who, at the time, could hardly speak English.
Fame ultimately followed & Robert Capa was suddenly in demand.
The thing is, yeah, he took a hell of a lot of pictures of the Spanish Civil War, but by the time he got back to Paris, World War II started.
Robert Capa didn't know if he could get a ticket out before the Nazis arrived & he knew for a fact that Endre Friedmann would neither be allowed to leave, or really survive the invasion.
So he gave all of his negatives to the Mexican Ambassador to France, who could get out.
And then he made it as far as England before he got a job working as a war correspondent again, because by that time he really was a famous American photographer....& a bit of an adrenaline junkie.
But, they both ended up making it back to France.
In fact, they stormed the beach at Omaha....several times.
Robert Capa was on the first assault, ran out of film, went back to England, got more film & stormed Omaha again...& again...& again.
So what we have left of Robert Capa's many charges up & down Omaha Beach are really a shadow of what they could have been.
Shadows that are still considered the best pictures of D-Day.
The man sort of really enjoyed getting shot at.
Sick, right?
While he was doing all of this, the Ambassador of Mexico was dieing of a heart attack & the Spanish Suitcase was lost to time...along with the negative that spawned the very public attack Adams made against Capa.
But by then, no one took the accusation of "coward" seriously, given, well, D-Day.
But, we'll get to that later.
It turns out that, after World War II, everyone really assumed he was an actual American & for the first time in his life, he went back to his home...in America...which he had never set foot in before.
So what do you do when you are a famous American photographer that has never been to America before?
You go straight to Hollywood with all the other really great liars.
It was that or politics, right?
And you almost instantly start a passionate love affair with a Hollywood starlet:
But you are a war correspondent & Ingrid sort of wants you around & you really need a job, so you start to work for one of the most famous directors in the world.
Thus giving the world:
Poor Hitchcock got it in both ears.
And this is great until Steven Spielberg pilfers the plot & makes a train-wreck of a modernized version:
You try to make a name taking the same old boring pictures as everyone else
But, for some reason, you like to get shot at, & you think that getting shot at is a lot more fun than fucking Ingrid Bergman, so you sit her down & have a heart-to-heart:
"You're boring, bitch, I'm going to Vietnam."
And she dumps you flat for someone with a better life-expectancy.
Until you step on a landmine when you are out on patrol & boom!
Both Robert Capa & Endre Friedmannd die tragically & the world thinks that there are no more Robert Capa photographs.
But there is still the legend. The legend of the Mexican Suitcase.
And then the Ambassador's family dies & they have an estate sale &, in 2007, the Mexican Suitcase shows up in the hands of people that recognize it for what it really is.
Yes...the negative is there & the jealous accusations of a lesser photographer are finally put to rest.
And, in 2011, a woman named Trisha Ziff made a documentary on the suitcase that no one, including myself, has ever seen:
I'll leave you with this:
No comments:
Post a Comment