Inside the Mexican Suitcase

Apr 30, 2009 by M. Scott Brauer 1 Comment »

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times - Robert Capas Mexican Suitcase, actually three flimsy cardboard valises containing thousands of negatives of pictures that Capa and others took during the Spanish Civil War before he fled Europe for America in 1939, has now been opened.

A year ago, word spread of the International Center of Photography’s receipt of three weather cardboard boxes, the so-called “Mexican Suitcase,” filled with heretofore unseen negatives by Robert Capa, David “Chim” Seymour, and Gerda Taro. Magnum’s been hard at work digitizing the pictures, and the New York Times has a first glimpse of the pictures, mostly from the Spanish Civil War. While new Robert Capa pictures may be what draws the headlines, the real goldmine here is Seymour’s lost negatives, especially in how they frame the whole of the three’s previously known work from the time.

Tags: chim, david seymour, gerda taro, history, international center of photography, lost, magnum, mexican suitcase, new york times, spanish civil war
Posted in News, Pictures, history, journalism