Overview

The true story behind famed photographer Robert Capa's actions on D-Day, placing his famous photographs in full context. Although Capa's Falling Soldier image from the Spanish Civil War has been definitively proven to be a staged propaganda fake, no one has applied a similarly critical eye to his later work. This book is the first effort to establish the facts behind the fables surrounding his D-Day adventures and the images he produced during that period. This book examines the fictionalized account Robert Capa penned in his pseudo biography Slightly Out of Focus. Written in the hopes of it becoming a movie, Capa included many elements which were exaggerated or simply not true, while omitting many relevant events. As he himself said in the dust jacket for that book: “Writing the truth being obviously so difficult, I have in the interests of it allowed myself to go sometimes slightly beyond and slightly this side of it. All events and persons in the book are accidental and have something to do with the truth.” This new account carefully details the actual events surrounding Capa's D-Day adventures, using official SHAEF files, still and motion picture images taken by other cameramen who were near or with Capa, and a variety of accounts of witnesses. It examines several aspects of Capa's narrative and reveals the truth behind the fiction: he claimed that he landed in the First Wave with Company E, in reality he landed almost two hours later in Wave 13 with the regimental commander. Analysis reveals how many of his images were presented in a false context and as a result have been misinterpreted for decades. Building on Allan Colleman and his team's proof that the bulk of Capa D-Day photos could not possibly have been ruined in a darkroom accident, this gripping expose details the effects the FORTITUDE deception plans had on censorship, and how the censorship system would have retained the images popularly thought to have been lost. AUTHOR: Charles Herrick graduated from the US military Academy at West Point in 1974. Commissioned in the Infantry, he earned the Ranger tab and Master Parachutist's wings. He served in a variety of positions from company grade to the Pentagon. He earned the Combat Infantryman's badge while assigned as the Operations Officer of the 193d Infantry Brigade in Panama in 1989, and later graduated from the US Army War College. After retiring from the Army in 1996, he continued to work on defense issues as a contractor. He has worked in East Asia, Latin America, the Balkans, Africa and Central Asia. He holds an MBA from the University of California at Los Angeles. After fully retiring in 2018, he lives in Kansas with his wife, where he pursues his passion for military history. 82 photos, charts, drawings

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9781636244730

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"""No military historian has ever subjected a set of war photographs to a forensic analysis comparable to what Charles Herrick achieves in Back into Focus. He brings to the project a combat veteran's experience, a dedicated researcher's commitment to excavating the truth, an ability to navigate military archives and decipher military documents, and the writing skills necessary to make all that he has uncovered accessible and fascinating to even a lay reader. Nothing like this exists in the literature of photography, photojournalism, or military history; it sets a very high bar.""--A. D. Coleman, director, Alternate History: The Capa D-Day Project"

""No military historian has ever subjected a set of war photographs to a forensic analysis comparable to what Charles Herrick achieves in Back into Focus. He brings to the project a combat veteran's experience, a dedicated researcher's commitment to excavating the truth, an ability to navigate military archives and decipher military documents, and the writing skills necessary to make all that he has uncovered accessible and fascinating to even a lay reader. Nothing like this exists in the literature of photography, photojournalism, or military history; it sets a very high bar.""--A. D. Coleman, director, Alternate History: The Capa D-Day Project

Author Information

Charles Herrick graduated from the US military Academy at West Point in 1974. Commissioned in the Infantry, he earned the Ranger tab and Master Parachutist's wings. He served in a variety of positions from company grade to the Pentagon. He earned the Combat Infantryman's badge while assigned as the Operations Officer of the 193d Infantry Brigade in Panama in 1989, and later graduated from the US Army War College. After retiring from the Army in 1996, he continued to work on defense issues as a contractor. He has worked in East Asia, Latin America, the Balkans, Africa and Central Asia. He holds an MBA from the University of California at Los Angeles. After fully retiring in 2018, he lives in Kansas with his wife, where he pursues his passion for military history.

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