The image factory

The world of silver press prints forms part of the history of the twentieth century. In those days, photographs were produced by cameras that functioned on the basis of a film that had to be developed. The resulting negative, processed with an enlarger, was rendered as a positive image by printing it on photographic paper, which was then published in the press. The agency, or the photographer, would offer the newspaper or magazine prints on paper accompanied by typed captions, which the publication then inserted into the relevant page. Robert Capa used a Leica, like his Leica II displayed here, but he would sometimes switch to a Contax, Rolleiflex or Nikon. 

Photographs would travel thousands of miles by car, train or plane between the place where they were taken and the media outlet that published them. In the thirties, the speed of image transmission was accelerated by the belinograph, which enabled photographs to be sent by telegraph. The documents presented here, including Capa’s typewriter, come from his studio at number 37 on rue Froidevaux in Paris, where he forged his legend with his friends Gerda Taro and David Seymour (Chim).