Robert Capa is remembered for his pictures of the Normandy landings, the war in general, for his adventurous life and the paradox of his death. Always recommended the photographer's proximity to the target of your camera and died in 1954, when he stepped on a landmine in Indochina, shortly after the war.

Photo: Gerda Taro, 1937

CLOSE ENOUGH "If your pictures Are not good enough, you're not close enough," Capa said to her photographer friends. The issue of proximity is still very current in photography. And in life.

It is a common beginner's seduction by a long lens, the telephoto lenses. Without actually physically close, you isolate a portion of the object and get an apparent proximity.

The technique can be good for shooting distant landscape, wildlife or to the portrait studio. Nothing compares, however, to dive into the scene, with normal or wide angle.

One obstacle is the proximity to the natural shyness of the photographer to get close to people and establish the first contact, often with a simple gesture. The great cameras and lenses are always a nuisance, reduce mobility and scare the photographed.

The classic Leica Leica users discreet, like Cartier-Bresson and Elliott Erwitt, developed a style of approach is not aggressive but discrete and surprising, that defines a whole style. Can still be used with very good results.

Cover was defined as a player. He lived many moments of extreme poverty. His brother Cornell wrote in 1999 that "During his short life he lived on earth and loved very much. He was born and died penniless in the same way. "

Great seducer, charmed women with cover profile Hungarian. After the war ended in 1945, he met Ingrid Bergman. Most of the stars ended up falling for him and wanted to leave her husband, but cover was not ready for marriage. In 1952, Capa also could no longer be the president of Magnum. His return to the field with his camera, did not last long. The last picture is from 1954.

BORON REPORTER PHOTO Besides his adventures, sometimes wrapped in fantasies created by himself, Robert Capa inspired a great fictional character, Boro, the photojournalist.

Also born in Budapest, romantic and seductive, Blemia Borowicz makes the whole course of the second war with his Leica and his adventures. Creating Dan Franck, a specialist in historical novels, and Jean Vautrin, award-winning filmmaker, lives, for example, the war in Germany (La Dame de Berlin), Japan (Le temps des Cerises), Spain (Les Noces de Guernica).

It is a pity that these novels, light, delicious and inconsequential, with historical inspiration and photo have not been translated into Portuguese. Maybe some of our publishers abide by this suggestion.

ARRIVES BY OLIVIA Olivia Byington, certainly not seduced by Robert Capa. Moreover, although the biography of the singer did not disclose the date of birth, probably when Olivia was born Capa was already history.

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Olivia, however, their delicate way, also praises the proximity. His latest CD is called "Close". His show, currently on theater Eva Hertz, Culture Bookstore in St. Paul, has the same name. And the DVD of the show called "Life is near."

Olivia, alone on stage with his guitar, explains the need of close relations with the public, this intimacy contagious.

The best singer of his generation, according to Cabral, talks about life, career, children, and actually comes close to us.

A beautiful inspiration, in a world where artificial idols sing muffled by millions of kilowatts packed stadium with thousands of spectators properly insulated by massive security barriers. Or in concert halls where the paying public (and well paying) is treated like cattle and sometimes sees no evil and hear the artist.

It is true that we are communicating here in this huge virtual world, sometimes without even knowing personally. For better or worse, is a new form of proximity, which overcomes the barriers of space and time and opens channels for the cultivation of our photographic affinity.

TOGETHER IN PARATY The September meeting, the Paraty in Focus, is different. Paraty is the ideal place to close, with its colonial ambience, its sea views and its rum. There, surely, we are all together. And very close.

Readings:

Robert Capa - A biography , Richard Whelan, Alfred A Knopf, New York, 1985

Blood and Champagne - The Life and Times of Robert Capa Alex Kershaw, St Martins Press, New York, 2003

Slightly Out of Focus , Robert Capa, The Modern Library, New York, 2001

Les Aventures de Boron reporter photographe , Frank & Vautrin, Ballan & Fayard, Paris (La Dame de Berlin, Le Temps des Cerises, Les Noces de Guernica, Mademoiselle and Boro Chat s'en va-t-en Guerre).