Robert Capa. Spanish Civil War, near Cerro Muriano, Córdoba front

Robert Capa. Spanish Civil War, near Cerro Muriano, Córdoba front

While its authenticity has been debated since it was shot in September 1936, Robert Capa’s photograph, famously known as “Falling Soldier,” among other titles, is nonetheless an iconic pacifist image. Allegations that this photograph was staged far away from the real Spanish Civil War battle lines do not take away from its pacifist message. Another of the piece’s alternate titles, “Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death, Cerro Muriano, September 5, 1936,” suggests that it was taken in the midst of the violent struggle for power in Spain. This war, more than any other that had come before, was an astonishingly savage one. Capa’s photograph represents a new genre of photojournalism that captured these horrors and made them widely available outside of Spain. “Falling Soldier” evokes an ethical call for peace by creating a sense of intimacy between the observer and subject during a dying man’s last moments. The world was able to bear witness to the brutality of the war and feel affected by a far away conflict. Humanitarian responses to this ethical call sowed the seeds of pacifism during the Spanish Civil War.

1936

Christina Bowen

Photograph