Mexican Suitcase is in fact three boxes containing 4,500 negatives documenting the Spanish Civil War by Robert Capa, Chim (David Seymour), and Gerda Taro. The 'Mexican Suitcase' was discovered in 1995 and released to the International Center of Photography in January 2008 after years of secret negotiations with the descendants of a Mexican general who found the work. The images were long-feared to be lost after the negatives were left in Capa's studio in Paris when he fled France during the Second World War. The 4500 images were taken between May 1936 and March 1939, and most of them are from the Spanish Civil War, with the exception of two rolls from Capa's trip to Belgium in May 1939.
The stories of the photographers themselves are revealed through their images: the dashing Capa, the studious Chim, and the intrepid Taro. Capa started out life as Endre Friedmann in Hungary; Taro as Gerta Pohorylle in Germany and Seymour as Dawid Szymin in Poland. These photographers met in Paris in 1934 and were in their 20s. These three photographers, who lived in Paris, worked in Spain, and published internationally, laid the foundation for modern war photography. Capa, Chim, and Taro risked their lives to witness history in the making and show it to the world, and the Mexican Suitcase contains some of their most important works. Their dramatic photographs vividly recorded battle sequences as well as the harrowing effects of the war on civilians. This material also demonstrates moving personal and artistic relationship between Capa and Taro, and the professional bond that later led Capa and Chim to create Magnum Photos.
The Mexican Suitcase, a groundbreaking exhibition opens on Friday, September 24 revealing the most famous group of recovered negatives of the 20th century, will be on view at the International Center of Photography (1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street) through January 9, 2011. The exhibition will present most of these negatives as modern contact sheets. In addition, all of the films reveal unedited frames, either unpublished or never printed. The exhibition will also include vintage 1930s newspapers and magazines - such as egards, Vu, Life, Schweizer Illustrierte Zeitung, Volks-Illustrierte - in which the images first appeared. Also on view will be two rarely seen Spanish Civil War films that used Capa footage and have corresponding stills in the Taro suitcase negatives.
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