Robert Capa (Hungarian, 1913–1954) was a Hungarian photographer who photographed five wars over the course of his lifetime and redefined the genre of photojournalism. Capa was born Endre Friedmann to Jewish parents in Budapest in 1913. At the age of 18, he left Hungary in search of work and in the early 1930s, he adopted the moniker “Robert Capa” because he believed it would be easier to sell his work with a more American-sounding name. Between 1936 and 1939, Capa worked as a photographer in Spain during the Spanish Civil War with fellow photojournalist David Seymour.

Over the next several decades, Capa covered World War II, the Second Sino-Japanese War, the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the First Indochina War. Perhaps his most well-known image, The Magnificent Eleven, was taken during the D-Day invasion of Omaha beach. Capa also traveled to the Soviet Union with American writer John Steinbeck, and his photos were included in Steinbeck’s book A Russian Journal.

In 1947, Capa co-founded Magnum Photos in Paris with Seymour, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and George Rodger.

In the 1950s, during a period of intense fighting in the Indochina War, Capa was asked to go on assignment to Southeast Asia for Life magazine. Capa was killed by a landmine after leaving his Jeep to take a photograph. He is buried in Westchester, NY.