art + objets d'arts + photography

Book – The Mexican Suitcase

Magnum Photographers

The Mexican Suitcase
by International Centre of Photography, New York. $300.
Steidl/ICPMint condition / still sealed / never opened / includes original cardboard case. New York & Göttingen 2010. 2 Volumes /2. — New — Softbound in slipcase. Quarto size ( 30,3 x 25 cm )( 3615 gr ). ——- 160 & 432 pages.

In late December 2007, three small cardboard boxes arrived at the International Center of Photography from Mexico City after a long and mysterious journey. These tattered boxes – the so-called Mexican Suitcase – contained the legendary Spanish Civil War negatives of Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and David Seymour (known as “Chim”). Rumors had circulated for years of the survival of the negatives, which had disappeared from Capa’s Paris studio at the beginning of World War II. Together, these roles of film constitute an inestimable record of photographic innovation and war photography, but also of the great political struggle to determine the course of Spanish history and to turn back the expansion of global fascism.

The two-volume publication The Mexican Suitcase accompanies a major exhibition at the International Center of Photography opening in September 2010. The catalogue features essays by Paul Preston, Simon Dell, David Balsells i Solé, Michel Lefebvre, Bernard Lebrun, Brian Wallis, Cynthia Young, and Kristen Lubben, as well as a complete reproduction of the 4,500 negatives in the suitcase.

RESEARCH:

https://www.danielcooneyfineart.com/auctions/highlights?view=slider#6

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” Sometimes, even in the world of photography, miracles happen. On 19 December 2007, three battered, commonplace cardboard boxes arrived at the International Center of Photography in New York. Within these boxes the so-called Mexican Suitcase was a treasure trove of photographic history believed lost since World War II: the legendary Spanish Civil War negatives of Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and David Seymour (known as Chim). The Mexican Suitcase contained 126 rolls of film, mostly shot between May 1936 and spring 1939, that are an inestimable record of innovative war photography and of a definitive episode in Spanish history. The photographs include Capas images of the Battle of Rio Segre, Chims famous image of a woman nursing a baby at a land reform meeting in Estremadura, and Taros last photos at the Battle of Brunete where she was killed in 1937. The story of the Mexican Suitcase itself is as fascinating as the photographs it contained. Carried by Capas studio manager from Paris to Bordeaux by bicycle in 1939, it came into the possession of General Francisco Aguilar González, the Mexican ambassador to the Vichy government in 194142, and found its way to Mexico City. Decades later the suitcase was discovered among Gonzálezs belongings and in 2007 was given to ICP, founded by Robert Capas brother Cornell Capa and home of the Capa and Taro archives as well as a large Chim collection. In 1979, Cornell Capa had implored the public to come forward with information about the Mexican Suitcase which he had spent years looking for: Anyone who has information regarding the suitcase should contact me and will be blessed in advance. This landmark two-volume publication, which accompanies a major exhibition at ICP and reproduces all 4,500 negatives from the suitcase, embodies the blessing Capa spoke of and presents the miraculous contents of the suitcase to the public for the first time. ” 

THE MEXICAN SUITCASE

The Mexican Suitcase will for the first time give the public an opportunity to experience images drawn from this famous collection of recovered negatives. In December 2007, three boxes filled with rolls of film, containing 4,500 35mm negatives of the Spanish Civil War by Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and Chim (David Seymour)-which had been considered lost since 1939-arrived at the International Center of Photography. These three photographers, who lived in Paris, worked in Spain, and published internationally, laid the foundation for modern war photography. Their work has long been considered some of the most innovative and passionate coverage of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Many of the contact sheets made from the negatives will be on view as part of the exhibition, which will look closely at some of the major stories by Capa, Taro, and Chim as interpreted through the individual frames. These images will be seen alongside the magazines of the period in which they were published and with the photographers’ own contact notebooks. The exhibition is organized by ICP assistant curator Cynthia Young.

The Mexican Suitcase, a groundbreaking exhibition revealing the most famous group of recovered negatives of the twentieth century, has been extended at the International Center of Photography (1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street) through May 8, 2011. Considered lost since 1939, the so-called Mexican Suitcase is in fact three boxes containing 4,500 negatives documenting the Spanish Civil War by Robert Capa, Chim (David Seymour), and Gerda Taro. There are also several rolls of portraits of Capa and Taro by Fred Stein. Besides offering new images by these major photographers that provide a comprehensive overview of the war, the cache of negatives also includes previously unknown portraits of Ernest Hemingway, Federico Garcia Lorca, and Dolores Ibarruri (known as “La Pasionaria”).

Capa, Chim, and Taro risked their lives to witness history in the making and show it to the world, and the Mexican Suitcase contains some of their most important works. Its recovery set in motion a profound shift in the study of these three photographers. In the process of researching the negatives, the authorship of numerous images by Capa, Chim, and Taro has been confirmed or reattributed. This material not only provides a uniquely rich and panoramic view of the Spanish Civil War, a conflict that changed the course of European history, but also demonstrates how the work of these legendary photographers laid the foundation for modern war photography. Appearing throughout the international press, their innovative and passionate coverage of the war was both engaged and partisan. While overtly supporting the antifascist Republican cause, their dramatic photographs vividly recorded battle sequences as well as the harrowing effects of the war on civilians.

Equally compelling are the stories of the photographers themselves as revealed through their images: the dashing Capa, the studious Chim, and the intrepid Taro, who died tragically in 1937 during the battle of Brunete. This is the history of three young people and the ties that bound them: the moving personal and artistic relationship between Capa and Taro, and the professional bond that later led Capa and Chim to create Magnum Photos. The material contained in the Mexican Suitcase documents a turning point in the history of photojournalism.

The exhibition will present most of these negatives as modern contact sheets. Because they were lost so long ago, and as no contact sheets were made, these films show us for the first time the order in which the images were conceived and shot, and in some cases the full extent of the photographers’ work on the story. Images that have become iconic over the years can now be read in their original sequence. In addition, all of the films reveal unedited frames, either unpublished or never printed. The exhibition will also include various examples of the original 1930s periodicals in which the work first appeared. These publications—Regards, Vu, Life, Schweizer Illustrierte Zeitung, Volks-Illustrierte—provide an enlightening historical context for the evolving coverage of the war and the growing reliance on the photo essay. The Mexican Suitcase will contain both vintage prints from the ICP collection and contemporary prints, along with the photographers’ own rarely seen contact notebooks.

Also on view will be two rarely seen Spanish Civil War films that used Capa footage and have corresponding stills in the Taro suitcase negatives.

The exhibition is organized by ICP assistant curator Cynthia Young. A fully illustrated two-volume catalogue will be published by ICP/Steidl to accompany the exhibition. All the negatives in the suitcase will be reproduced, accompanied by essays from twenty-two specialists in the Spanish Civil War and 1930s photography.

This exhibition and its catalogue were made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, Frank and Mary Ann Arisman, Christian Keesee, and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Additional support was received from Sandy and Ellen Luger, Bruce and Lois Zenkel, the Strand Hotel, New York, the Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain’s Ministry of Culture and United States Universities, and the Consulate General of Spain in New York.

https://www.arts.gov/article/international-center-photography-new-york-ny

http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2010/11/07/international_center_of_photography_exhibits_recall_civil_war_in_spain_revolution_in_cuba/