A Spanish newspaper claims that Robert Capa’s iconic photograph, known by the titles “Falling Soldier”, “Death of a Loyalist Soldier” and “Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death”, may have been staged. Questioning the authenticity of the photograph is nothing new - the fact that the split-second shot is almost perfectly composed, with only a bit of the rifle and the tips of the soldier’s feet being cut off, has raised suspicion many times since its first publication in Life magazine over seventy years ago. However, the skeptical voices were silenced when the soldier was identified as Federico Borrell García, a militiaman who was indeed killed in the battle fought near Cerro Muriano on 5 September 1936, and again when Richard Whelan pointed out that the curled fingers of the soldier’s left hand “clearly indicate… that he is already dead.” Despite this, the Spanish newspaper El Periódico now asserts the photo was “fabricated”, claiming that the “real location” was near the town of Espejo rather than Cerro Muriano, where “there was no fighting”. The timing of the article coincides with a major Robert Capa exhibition, currently on show in the Palace of Arts in Budapest.

Via The Independent

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