Photojournalism (War - Tony Vaccaro and Robert Capa)

Robert Capa/Tony Vaccaro

• Describe the different circumstances that these photographers experienced as Photojournalists in WW2 
• Find and upload to your blog some work of theirs

Robert Capa

Robert Capa was hired by life magazine to take photographs of the front line and had the choice of dropping in and out of taking pictures of the war. He was the only photojournalist to go with the first wave of the D-Day landings however 3 rolls of film had been ruined because the editors of life magazine had rushed trying to develop the film. He was seen as the greatest war Photographer as he saw photography as so important that he would take pictures in the middle of the war.

This image is of a loyalist fight that was shot in the head during the Spanish civil war.

Robert capa had two rules for his photography:

the first rule was : get close

the second rule was : get closer


Tony Vaccaro


Tony Vaccaro was a sodldier photographer who took pictures during world war II. Vaccaro always had his camera at the ready so he could easily take a picture when it was about to happen. Tony Vaccaro was closer to the action than capa because of him being a soldier. During one of the battles Vaccaro had to develop the film on the battlefield and he didnt have a dark room so he waited for a clear night and developed the film in helmets however most of these images were destroyed by the military because they showed dead U.S soldiers.

After the war he stayed in Germany to record the aftermath and the reconstruction of germany.

He was told to use the standard issue Speed Graphic camera

This camera was slow and could only take two pictures at a time before new film was needed to be put into the camera. so Vaccaro decided to use Argus C3 over the speed Graphic.

Vaccaro had to use the Argus C3 as he did not have the money to buy a leica like Robert Capa had.


In other words Robert Capa had alot more money than Tony Vaccaro and also had the privileges of jumping in and out of the action whereas Vaccaro had to be in the thick of it as he was actually a soldier. They also had completely different views on what war was like and Vaccaro's view on was sounds alot more logical and sensible compared to Capa as Vaccaro had to sit through the war and watch as it unfolded while Capa got to jump in and out of different parts of the war and came to the conclusion that it was glorious. This was because he had not experienced war to it' fullest like Vaccaro had.

The images from either of the photographers could be seen as unreliable due to the fact that Vaccaro's were censored and quite a few of his photographs were destroyed because they showed American soldiers dead. Capa's photographs can be seen as unreliable as Capa was able to jump in and out of certain parts of war and only took photos of things that made war look glorious.