Laporan Wartawan TribunJakarta.com, Ananda Bayu Sidarta
TRIBUNJAKARTA.COM - Untuk menghormati ulang tahun ke-108 Gerda Taro, Google mengenang fotografer wanita masa perang ini dengan Google Doodle.
Taro, fotografer wanita pertama yang tewas dalam suatu aksi, lahir di Stuttgart, Jerman pada tahun 1910, sebelum pindah ke Prancis pada tahun 1933, tak lama setelah Adolf Hitler terpilih sebagai kanselir.
Di Paris, Taro, yang dikenal sebagai "rubah merah kecil" karena rambut jahe dan perawakannya yang kecil, bertemu dengan sesama pengungsi, Andre Friedmann, lalu ia berteman dan diajarkan dasar-dasar fotografi.
Selama waktu itulah mereka memutuskan untuk mencoret nama-nama mereka datang ke Paris dan menemukan identitas baru.
Mr Friedmann menjadi Robert Capa dan Gerta Pohorylle berubah menjadi Gerda Taro.
Bekerja bersama, sebagai teman dan kekasih, pasangan ini meliput Perang Saudara Spanyol di Barcelona sebagai sebuah tim ketika terjadi pada tahun 1936, menghasilkan foto-foto hitam-putih para pejuang perlawanan untuk surat kabar Ce Soir saat itu.
Pekerjaan Mr Capa selama perang membuatnya menjadi salah satu fotografer perang paling terkenal sepanjang masa, sementara Taro juga membuat nama untuk dirinya sendiri.
In honour of Gerda Taro’s 108th birthday, Google is recognising the female wartime photographer with a Google Doodle.
Ms Taro, the first female photographer killed in action, was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1910 - before moving to France in 1933, shortly after Adolf Hitler was elected chancellor.
In Paris, Ms Taro, known as “the little red fox” for her ginger hair and small stature, met fellow refugee Andre Friedmann, whom she befriended and who taught her the basics of photography.
It was during this time that the pair decided to shed the names they came to Paris with and invent new identities. Mr Friedmann became Robert Capa and Gerta Pohorylle changed to Gerda Taro.
Working together, as friends and lovers, the pair covered the Spanish Civil War in Barcelona as a team when it broke out in 1936, producing black-and-white photographs of the resistance fighters for the newspaper Ce Soir.
Mr Capa’s work during the war led to him becoming one of the most recognised war photographers of all time - while Ms Taro also made a name for herself.
By the next year, Ms Taro felt confident enough in her photography skills to work on her own, which she did for the last five months of her career and life.
In July 1937, at the age of 26, Gerda Taro was crushed by a tank while covering the Republican offensive in Brunete - and died from her injuries shortly after.
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Her photographs from the day were never found.
Although her career was tragically cut short, Ms Taro’s bravery in the face of war and conflict lived on through the images she captured.
During her life and after her death, many of her photographs were incorrectly attributed to Mr Capa - as the pair had famously worked together to capture and bring wartime realities to the public.
However, in 2007, 4,500 negatives taken by Ms Taro, Mr Capa and photographer David Seymour during the war and previously considered lost were found in Mexico City - shedding new light on the female photographer’s impressive career.
The photos were exhibited at the International Centre of Photography.
As her friend and mentor Mr Capa once famously said, and which Gerda Taro embodied in her career: “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.”
Google is paying tribute to pioneering photojournalist Gerda Taro with its Google Doodle on Wednesday.
The Doodle comes on what would have been Taro’s 108th birthday — but the trail-blazing war photographer lost her life at just 26 years old, while covering the Spanish Civil War in 1937. Nonetheless, Taro managed to accomplish quite a bit in her short career.
Taro — born Gerda Pohorylle in Stuttgart, Germany — left Germany for Paris in 1933, after Adolf Hitler become chancellor. In Paris, Taro met and fell in love with photographer Robert Capa, who taught her the basics of the craft, according to the International Center of Photography (ICP). They began covering the Spanish Civil War as a team starting in 1936, the BBC reports, capturing images of troops, conflict and Spanish refugees and sending them back to French newspapers.
Eventually, Taro began venturing out alone on photographic missions — including the one in 1937 that led to her death, after she was inadvertently crushed a Loyalist tank, according to ICP.
A decade ago, an exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery in London, featuring many never-before-seen images taken by Taro and Capa, gave her work new life. Although Taro’s work has been overshadowed by Capa’s, and her legacy remains largely unknown, she is considered one of the world’s first frontline female war photographers, and the first to die in action.
