Slightly Out of Focus (Modern Library War) [Paperback]

Robert Capa (Author), Richard Whelan (Introduction), Cornell Capa (Foreword)

Book Description

Release date: June 12, 2001 | Series: Modern Library War

In 1942, a dashing young man who liked nothing so much as a heated game of poker, a good bottle of scotch, and the company of a pretty girl hopped a merchant ship to England. He was Robert Capa, the brilliant and daring photojournalist, and Collier's magazine had put him on assignment to photograph the war raging in Europe. In these pages, Capa recounts his terrifying journey through the darkest battles of World War II and shares his memories of the men and women of the Allied forces who befriended, amused, and captivated him along the way. His photographs are masterpieces -- John G. Morris, Magnum Photos' first executive editor, called Capa "the century's greatest battlefield photographer" -- and his writing is by turns riotously funny and deeply moving.

From Sicily to London, Normandy to Algiers, Capa experienced some of the most trying conditions imaginable, yet his compassion and wit shine on every page of this book. Charming and profound, Slightly Out of Focus is a marvelous memoir told in words and pictures by an extraordinary man.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Robert Capa, the great photojournalist who is perhaps best known for his searing images of WWII, infused his autobiography with the same brio and warmth that he expressed in his now classic photographs. "Victory was pleasant and exhausting," the Hungarian-born American notes after the Allies' capture of Tunisia. "During the day in the streets ... we were kissed by hundreds of old women.... We had enough liquor from a captured Gestapo warehouse to keep our singing throats from drying out." Always on the frontlines (he was killed in 1954 in what would later become known as the Vietnam War), Capa went ahead with the parachute invasion of Sicily even though he had been fired from Colliers Weekly--flying in with a squadron of young soldiers he refers to as "boys." When Capa's turn came to jump, he forgot to count "one thousand, two thousand, three thousand" before pulling his cord, instead murmuring, "Fired photographer jumps." "I felt a jerk on my shoulder and my chute was open. 'Fired photographer floats,' I said happily to myself." Stuck dangling in a tree all night, he didn't dare call out for help. "With my Hungarian accent, I stood an equal chance of being shot by either side."

Writing or clicking the shutter, Capa was the perfect conduit for his time, with the war's almost casual heroism, palpable danger, and the importance of every moment of life--whether lying in a foxhole or shopping in London at Dunhill's for a silver flask. Slightly Out of Focus is dotted with his pictures, including the most famous ones of the D day invasion. "I am a gambler," Capa writes. "I decided to go in with Company E in the first wave." Capa's priceless, self-deprecating text tells much, and his photographs show the rest: how thin the Europeans were in Italy, France, and Germany, for example, trim as saplings from years of deprivation. And then there's Capa's famous series showing the plump Frenchwoman, a German collaborator, marked for shame by her shaved head, hurrying past her taunting neighbors, all of whom are gaunt by comparison.

This is a war book, of course, but it will transfix documentary photographers. And this Modern Library edition, which links Capa with such great writers as Ernest Hemingway (whom he photographed wounded), confers suitable honor on his earthy genius. --Peggy Moorman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Renowned photograher Capa first published this memoir in 1947, recalling his time covering World War II between 1942 and 1945. His firsthand reminiscences are buttressed with his signature photographs.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Modern Library; New edition edition (June 12, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375753966
• ISBN-13: 978-0375753961
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.5 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #45,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Photojournalism
  • #14 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > History

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Truly Marvelous, Excellent Work. Must Read. November 15, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

After reading the book, I felt a deep sadness, not because of anything Capa had written, but because I realized that I would never get the opportunity to meet the author in person, to ask so many more questions. I wanted to hear for real that playful, romantic Hungarian voice, which I had heard all along in my head, re-tell one of his memoirs. They are humourous, intense and ironic. They are bitter-sweet, magically woven anecdotes spread over the horror and violence of war. The work is so honest, it is as if the reader has just sat down beside a fire-place with Capa and been told a yarn over a bottle of thirty year-old brandy. For us, Robert Capa has composed a memoir of crawling beside American troops assaulting Salerno, of struggling for the picture amidst shells and bullets, about parachuting into Sicily and landing in the first wave on D-Day and about a romance with a rosy-haired lady he calls Pinky. Robert Capa may be not be as famous today as the quality of his life's work entitles him to be, but he is, without a doubt, the most interesting, charismatic and magical personalities with which one may become acquainted on paper. Slightly Out Of Focus has thankfully been re-pressed in this 1999 edition, hopefully exposing more people to the work of this brilliant man. The book is ideal for anyone who might, on a rainy day, feel the urge to talk with an old friend and listen to a magnificent tale.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Incorrigible Capa December 1, 2003

By Melissa Dunson

Format:Paperback

Slightly Out of Focus, the autobiography by legendary photographer Robert Capa, chronicles his experiences as a photographer for Collier's and Life magazines during World War II. Capa's adventure takes him from his comfortable bed in New York, across the Atlantic, into the African desert, to the beaches of Normandy and the liberation of Paris, through Germany, and finally to a posh London apartment where his journey ends. The book is a delightful read. Over 100 of Capa's breathtaking and thought provoking photographs are scattered throughout its pages. Slightly Out of Focus is ridiculously easy to read. Capa's conversational style and witty banter result in a story that feels more like your favorite novel, than the biography of a war correspondent. The memoirs span only 232 pages, but fully encompass the blood, sweat, and tears shed during the most gruesome war in American history.

Capa throws no punches when he puts his thoughts and experiences into words. He is gut wrenchingly open, honest, and human about himself and the war that he photographs. He accurately shows the not so glamorous, unromantic side of front-line journalism in stories about being too broke to pay his bills, sleeping in bed-bug infested houses, driving for hours over empty deserts, contracting malaria, bureaucratic red tape, and eventually giving up the woman of his dreams to continue photographing the war. Capa is honest enough to admit to all of this and wrote, "I began to dislike this war. The life of a war correspondent wasn't so romantic."

Capa put his life in danger countless times in the book, each time in the quest for the perfect photo that said everything and each time narrowly escaping death. While in Africa, he accidentally wandered into a mine field and had to wait for hours to be rescued.... Later, the division that Capa was traveling with was bombed during the night. Capa described it as, "Next morning, when I woke up, there wasn't any tent over me. The camp had been bombed during the night. The blasts had blown away all the tents, although no one was hurt. I was the object of envy and admiration for having slept through it all without stirring." During his time in Europe, Capa joined in the Normandy invasion and parachuted out of planes. Soon after he began, Capa gave up trying to be an impartial observer and assisted in rescuing and transporting wounded soldiers during some of the fiercest fighting. He slept in fox holes, ate C-rations, and helped bury fallen soldiers.

In Slightly Out of Focus, we learn as much about Capa as we do about the war. He unashamedly allows us a constant view into his psyche. It offers a refreshing and helpful glimpse into the struggles of an embedded journalist. He admits when he is frightened, tired, apathetic, angry, or even happy. He talks often in the book of becoming tired of the sickeningly violent monotony that is war. "They were simple pictures and showed how dreary and unspectacular life fighting actually is. The correspondent's war neurosis was setting in...my pictures were sad and empty as the war, and I didn't feel like sending them to the magazine."

In spite of the inherent death and depression of war, Capa finds the everyday humor in extraordinary experiences. Just when the book seems too intense, he makes a witty remark or points out the weakness in human folly and makes you chuckle. He allows you to take the pill of war down without having to dissipate the cold, hard facts, by giving the reader a spoon full of sugar at the same time.

The love story of Capa and "Pinky" (a.k.a. Elaine Justin) also provides a breakup between intense battles. Capa maintains a lighthearted feel in the book by alternating chapters of fighting and death with chapters of his humorous roller-coaster romance. In the end "Pinky" gives up on Capa because, by covering the war instead of being with her, he finally chose between his two great loves. Capa begins and ends the book with the same line, "There is absolutely no reason to get up in the mornings anymore." The reader understands finally, on the 232nd page, that Capa lives to cover wars. In his mind, being a war correspondent isn't a job, it is a destiny. When he isn't covering a war, he is lost, restless, and aimless.

Slightly Out of Focus is jewel deserving five stars. Capa has effectively created a book that captures the feeling of World War II while making it palatable to the average reader. He educates and entertains. The work is believable and down to earth, revealing a transparency uncommon to most authors, but welcomed by readers. In this work, Capa proves himself to be far more than a great photographer. In the words of Capa's good friend, Pulitzer Prize winner John Hersey, "He has humor. He has a clear idea of what makes a great picture: `it is a cut of the whole event,' he says, `which will show more of the real truth of the affair to someone who was not there than the whole scene.' Above all-and this is what shows in his pictures-Capa, who has spent so much energy on inventions for his own person, has deep human sympathy for men and women trapped in reality." Read more ›

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable book by a remarkable person November 2, 2000

By Kam Cheung

Format:Hardcover

There is no exaggeration in saying that Capa is a remarkable person - being expelled out of his hometown at the age of 17, struggled and survived and managed to prove himself well in a land completely foreign to himself, developed and maintained a great sense of humor and humanity against all the odds, landed on the "easy red" on the D Day with the Allied's first wave ... From his writing and pictures one can feel great passion. Unlike many war photographers who claim to hate wars (I can't stop thinking of James Nachtway, sorry fans of Jim), Capa would never use a wound to decorate his pictures. This book is very different from other books about wars. A love story is interwoven with Capa's personal account of the WWII. There are also some magnificant photos among the pages. You may have seen them elsewhere but here you can view them together with descriptions written by Capa himself. I have only one complaint - for no obvious reasons the writer of the introduction disclosed the name of the guy who married Capa's loved girl, whose identity Capa had as a gentleman tried hard to conceal. This flaw is however not Capa's.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic Story June 5, 2000

By D. A Wend TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

This is a remarkable book by a great photographer. Robert Capa, as has been said, invented himself. This is evident in this book: as a Hungarian living the the United States during war time (technically an enemy alien) and broke, he managed to effortlessly have a job offered to him, get a passport (as if by magic) and become an American war photographer.

Mr. Capa wrote well for someone who learned English but his marvelous photographs included in this book say much more than the words on the printed page. Some of the photographs were familiar and others were new for me. They are touched with compassion and so involved with the scene as if the camera eye were able to explore the world invisible.

In sum, a wonderful book to read and treasure for Capa's outlook on life, his experiences and his unique photographs.