> What was the story with the D-Day pictures?
About 106 frames were taken of the D-day invasion in the thick of the battle.
Due to a lab technicians error in England, all but 8 were unusable, and those
that were are very flawed. If I recall correctly, the problem stemmed from
over heating the film while drying, thus melting the emulsion. (I don't
belive the technicians name has been made public, although I haven't seen a
biography of Capa). OTOH, and in retrospect, the flaws add to the emotional
impact of the scenes in a way that a sharper images might not. They are so
ingrained in our memory that Steve Speilberg purposely bleached out the
footage and double framed every shot from the invasion scenes in "Saving
Private Ryan." It's as if a techically perfect view of that hell would leave
us thinking "This isn't real." I suppose that technicians darkroom error led,
in no small part, to that feeling.
How Capa could have continued to photograph wars escapes me. He later
parachuted into the front lines. He was eventually killed by a landmine
covering the French Vietnam conflict.
Gary Reese
Las Vegas, NV
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