[American Troops Landing on D-Day, Omaha Beach, Normandy Coast, France]

Robert Capa

1944 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

For twenty-two years as a war correspondent, Capa was a witness to the twentieth century's most momentous events: the Spanish Civil War, the London blitz, World War II, the birth of Israel, and the war in Indochina; he died after stepping on a mine while covering this last conflict. Capa could just as easily have perished on D-Day when he made this unforgettable photograph while wading ashore in Normandy with one of the first landings of soldiers on Omaha Beach. Capa made seventy-nine photographs of the first hours of the invasion. Tragically, a careless lab assistant ruined all but seven negatives, the only photographic record of the first wave.

Artist

Robert Capa

Date

1944

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 2000