Republican Soldiers, Málaga Front

The Spanish Civil War attracted numerous overseas journalists and photographers with a desire to witness first-hand the events unfolding. Gerda Taro, the pseudonym of Gerta Pohorylle, first travelled to Spain in August 1936 — three weeks after the outbreak of the war — through an assignment from Vu magazine and in the company of Robert Capa, a pseudonym both came up with to make the photographic work of Endre Ërno Friedmann more international in scope. From that point and until her death in the conflict — just one year later, in July 1937 — Gerda Taro travelled from Paris to Spain to cover the war in different territories of the Republican faction: Barcelona, Aragón, Madrid, Toledo, Córdoba, Málaga, Almería, Guadalajara and Valencia. She learned photography with Robert Capa, undertaking the task unreservedly and capturing striking images of the war fronts. Her works were regularly published in Regards, Ce Soir and Volks-Illustrierte.

Concha Calvo Salanova