Gerda Taro

Gerda Taro (1910-1937) was a pioneering photojournalist whose brief career consisted almost exclusively of dramatic photographs from the front lines of the Spanish Civil War.

Republican militiawoman training on the beach, outside Barcelona, August 1936

Her photographs were widely reproduced in the French leftist press, and incorporated the dynamic camera angles of New Vision photography as well as a physical and emotional closeness to her subject. Taro worked alongside Robert Capa, who was her photographic as well as romantic partner, and the two collaborated closely. While covering the crucial battle of Brunete in July 1937, she was fatally injured when a Republican tank, reportedly out of control, struck the car in which she had hitched a ride to escape from the battlefront. The details of what happened that afternoon remain obscure, and the accepted version of events has been stitched together from several accounts, some reliable, others less so.

Taro was the first female war photographer. She created some of the most moving studies ever made of people in conflict.

Gerda Taro and Robert Capa, Paris, 1936

An overview of Taro's photographs can be seen

here.