Gerda Taro
Gerda Taro (1 August 1910 - 26 July 1937)
It has been a busy few weeks and my latest post that is coming is a bit delayed, so I thought I would share a very short biography of the important photojournalist Gerda Taro. I usually post my smaller, bitesize pieces about women photographers on Notes but I am experimenting with sending them as posts to my subscribers in the hope that you don’t miss them. Thank you as always for your support and encouragement of this project.
Born Gerta Pohorllye in Stuttgart, she left Germany in 1933 when Hitler came to power. Born into a middle class Jewish family, Gerta was politically active from a young age - distributing left wing and anti-Nazi leaflets around Leipzig. She was arrested by the Nazi’s and later fled to Paris.
In Paris, she met the photographer Endre Friedmann (October 1913 - May 1954) with whom she had a relationship with until her death. It is said that she changed both their names to Gerda Taro and Robert Capa as a way of sounding more professional and therefore more likely to get paid for their work.
In 1936 both Taro and Capa went to cover the Spanish Civil War. Passionately supporting the anti-Fascist Republican cause, she photographed soldiers as well as civilians caught up in the Civil War. Taro made several visits to Spain - sometimes with Capa and sometimes without him.
On 26th July 1937, Taro was tragically killed by an out of control tank that crushed her. She was buried in Paris where thousands of people lined the streets to mourn her death.
There is so much to say about Taro and her work and I will be writing a longer biography soon. After living in the shadows of her partner Robert Capa for decades she is now getting the recognition that she rightly deserves.
Good to see this, Deborah. I'm looking forward to reading your longer post about Gerda Taro. A couple of things to note. I close out my university "Writing about Images" course with a lecture on Taro's photographic/romantic relationship with Robert Capa. This includes me playing the song "Taro" by Alt J (2012) and asking my students to interpret its beautiful lyrics. Do you know it? I found a fascinating account of the last day of Taro's life, written by Canadian journalist Ted Allan, who was together with Gerda at the Battle of Brunette in 1937. It appears on the website of Allan's son, Norman, www.normanallan.com
This is really fascinating Deborah and I for one and very glad you wrote it as a full length post because, as you say, Notes are easily missed. I'll look forward to the next one!