The Falling Soldier

The Falling Soldier (full title: Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death, Cerro Muriano, September 7, 1936) is a black and white photograph by Robert Capa, claimed to have been taken on Saturday, September 5, 1936. It was said to depict the death of a Republican Iberian Federation of Libertarian Youth (FIJL) soldier, during the Battle of Cerro Muriano in the Spanish Civil War. The soldier in the photograph was later claimed to be the anarchist militiaman Federico Borrell García.
The photo appears to capture a Republican soldier at the very moment of his death. The soldier is shown collapsing backward after being fatally shot in the head, with his rifle slipping out of his right hand. The pictured soldier is dressed in civilian clothing, but is wearing a leather cartridge belt. Following its publication, the photograph was acclaimed as one of the greatest ever taken, but since the 1970s, there have been significant doubts about its authenticity due to its location, the identity of its subject, and the discovery of staged photographs taken at the same time and place.
One printed edition is now held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.
History.
Capa described how he took the photograph in a 1947 radio interview:
Upon publication of the photograph, there were allegations from the Falange, an extreme nationalist political group in Spain, that the photograph was staged. However, outside of Spain, it remained unquestioned as a legitimate documentary photograph until the 1970s.
Authenticity debate.
While some, including one of Capa's biographers, Richard Whelan, have defended the photograph's authenticity, doubts have been raised since 1975. Staging photos was a common occurrence during the Spanish Civil War because of limits imposed upon photojournalists' freedom of movement: unable to go to active fronts, or cordoned off when they were, photographers resorted to pictures of soldiers feigning combat. It had been claimed that the photograph was taken at the battle site of Cerro Muriano, but research suggests it was taken in the town of Espejo, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) away.<!-- more links: 
Richard Whelan, in "This Is War! Robert Capa at Work", states,
External links.
[[Category:1936 works]]
[[Category:1936 in art]]
[[Category:Spanish Civil War photographs]]
[[Category:Filmed killings]]
[[Category:Black-and-white photographs]]
[[Category:Photography in Spain]]
[[Category:Unidentified people]]
[[Category:1930s photographs]]