Exhibition on Mexican suitcase with Capa, Taro negatives in Budapest

Budapest, December 21 (MTI) – An exhibition presenting rediscovered negatives taken by Hungarian-born photographer Robert Capa and two fellow photojournalists during the Spanish Civil War has opened at the OSA archives in Budapest.

The exhibition entitled “The Mexican Suitcase” focuses on the story of the suitcase that contained about 4,500 negatives by Capa, Gerda Taro and Chim (David Seymour) arranged in three small boxes carrying a caption each, the organisers said.

The suitcase was most probably arranged by Capa and Chim themselves with help by a Hungarian friend of Capa, Imre Weiss “Chiki,” they said.

Following the end of the war in 1939, the negatives were passed from hand to hand for safekeeping, and ultimately ended up in Mexico City, where they resurfaced in 2007. They finally entered the Capa collection of the New York International Centre of Photography in that year with the help of Irish film director Trisha Ziff.

“This material not only provides a uniquely rich view of the Spanish Civil War, a conflict that changed the course of European history, but also demonstrates how the work of three key photojournalists laid the foundation for modern war photography,” the exhibition’s website says.

The exhibition running in the OSA archives until late February will show a documentary by Ziff telling the negatives’ story on January 13.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters