Robert Capa’s Forgotten Spanish Civil War Photobook Is Back in Print
Nov 4, 2026
Dunja Đuđić Kalinin
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
Share:
Death in the Making, the 1938 photo book by Robert Capa and Gerda Taro, is back in print from Damiani and the International Center of Photography (ICP). This edition keeps André Kertész’s original layout, Capa’s captions, and Jay Allen’s preface. But it’s improved, as the images look far better than they did in the first edition.
[Related Reading: Photography rocks: Here are my 10 favorite photography songs]
[Republican soldiers lying on the ground aiming rifles, Aragón front, Spain], August 1936
Sadly, Gerda Taro never saw the finished book. She was killed covering the war in 1937, and the book is dedicated to her. Its photos span a single year of the conflict, moving from early excitement to the harrowing reality of modern warfare. Together, they pay tribute to the civilians and soldiers who fought Franco’s forces.
Then the book disappeared. After World War II, rising fear of Communism in the United States made any link to the Spanish Civil War a liability. “Today ‘Death in the Making’ is newly appreciated for its call to arms against rising fascist threat”, the publisher writes.
[Women assembling cartridge belts for Republican soldiers in munitions factory, Madrid], November–December 1936
[Workers in a munitions factory, Madrid], June 1937
[Enemy flag captured at the Battle of Brunete presented to Second International Congress of Writers for the Defense of Culture, Madrid], July 6, 1937
Who Was Robert Capa?
[Related reading: This is the story of Robert Capa, “the greatest war photographer in the world”]
Robert Capa was born in Budapest in 1913. In 1930, he moved to Berlin to study journalism and political science at the Deutsche Hochschule für Politik. He also worked as a darkroom assistant at Dephot.
When the Nazis rose to power in 1933, Capa left Germany for Paris. There, he met Henri Cartier-Bresson, Chim (David Seymour), and Gerda Taro. He went on to work as a photojournalist, traveling to Spain several times between 1936 and 1939 to document the civil war.
[Civilians running in the street during air raid siren, Bilbao, Spain], May 1937
When World War II broke out, Capa escaped to New York. However, he soon returned to Europe to cover the conflict, primarily for Life. After the war, he co-founded the Magnum Photos agency with Cartier-Bresson, Chim, and George Rodger. In 1954, he traveled to Hanoi to photograph the French war in Indochina. He was killed by a landmine shortly after his arrival. He was only 40 years old.
[Republican troops waving from train departing for the Aragón front, Barcelona], August 1936
The writing on the train reads, “UHP [Unión de Hermanos Proletarios; Union of Proletarian Brothers] swear on these letters before you die brothers rather than consent to tyrants.”
[Civilians taking shelter in the sub-way during the bombing, Madrid], November–December 1936
[Related Reading: This is the story behind Robert Capa’s D-Day photos on Normandy Beach]
Price and Availability
Death in the Making is a 112-page hardbound book with a jacket, featuring 152 black-and-white images. It measures 21.4 x 27.9 cm (8 2/5 x 11 inches), and it costs $50 / €45 / £40. You can order your copy here.
See more from DIYPhotography.net on Google
Add DIYPhotography.net as a trusted source. This makes
our stories more likely to appear in your Google Search results.
Add as a preferred source on Google
Dunja Đuđić Kalinin
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
Related Posts
This is the story of Robert Capa, “the greatest war photographer in the world”
This is the story behind Robert Capa’s D-Day photos on Normandy Beach
Descendants of Black Civil War heroes recreate their 19th-century ancestors in a moving photo project
Better Than Ikea: If You Are Going to Print Photos – Print Them BIG!
Join the Discussion
DIYP Comment Policy
Be nice, be on-topic, no personal information or flames.