The back pages of this book has an excellent ten page illustrated essay by Cynthia Young describing how Capa's book of war photos was originally published in 1938. Over the years it has achieved a sort of cult status and the few copies that come onto the market are alarmingly expensive. Odd really because the original edition (at $2.50) from New York publishers Covici-Friede was a very poor production with cheap paper and low grade printing. This new edition from Damiani is vastly superior. The layout and typography, by photographer Andre Kertesz, is identical to the original but the photos have been scanned from the Robert Capa Collection prints held by the International Center of Photography and printed with a three hundred screen.
The book records the first year of the Spanish Civil War with 148 photos but not all by Capa, twenty-four are by his girl friend and possibly the first female photojournalist, Gerda Taro, killed on the front line in July 1937 and thirteen by Chim (David Seymour). The perspective is from the Spanish Republican position fighting the fascist General Franco and obviously the book doesn't cover Franco's victory in 1939. The pictures capture the life of civilians attempting to make the best of it despite the bombing and a lack of food while the republican forces struggle against superior odds.
The photos by Capa, who was only twenty-four, capture the military action and death in a very direct way, making these images the first of a new style of conflict reportage, which was picked up by picture agencies and weekly current affairs magazines in Europe and America.
This is the second historical photobook published by Damiani this year, earlier they published Weegee's Naked city, a book similar to Death in the making because the original publication was of very poor quality. I hope they continue to re-publish classic photobooks from past decades.
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