EYES OF THE WORLD

New sumptuous international YA narrative non-fiction project about the essential figures of modern photojournalism, Robert Capa and Gerda Taro.

Robert Capa and Gerda Taro were young Jewish refugees, idealistic and in love. As photographers, they set off to capture their generation's most important struggle; the fight against Fascism. Among the first to depict modern warfare, Capa and Taro took powerful photographs of the Spanish Civil War that went straight from the devastation to news magazines. In so doing, they helped give birth to the idea of "bearing witness" through technology to bring home tragedies from across the world. Packed with dramatic photos, posters, and maps, this compelling book captures the fascinating story of how photojournalism began. In EYES OF THE WORLD, Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos weave together three compelling narratives: the love story of another artistic couple: the larger-than-life photographers Robert Capa and Gerda Taro; the battles, passions and tragedies of the civil war that engulfed Spain and riveted Europe between 1936-1939; and the lives and works of the great artists – from Pablo Picasso to Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes to George Orwell --which intersected with Capa and Taro and Spain. Lavishly illustrated with Capa’s, Taro’s and their friend Chim’s own photos and photographic notebooks, this is the epic pageant of an era, and the human drama of a man and woman deeply in love with each other – and a cause. In Spain, amidst air strikes by Hitler’s Condor legion and betrayals by Stalin’s spies, Capa and Taro helped invent a new kind of photography. Now images came straight from the fields of battle to the magazines such as Life that people read on their kitchen tables. In Spain Capa and Taro risked everything – their love, and their lives -- to show the human side of war; to be The Eyes of the World. This is their story. Written as page-turning narrative nonfiction, this book is based on deep research in primary and secondary sources and features rich backmatter including notes and sources, a full Cast of Characters, and a triple timeline. Here is nonfiction that reads like a filmscript and makes use of the most current scholarship. Here is a book that brings to life the dreams and yearnings of a generation and inspires all to use photography to bear witness to the world. Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos are award-winning authors in their own rights and together wrote SUGAR CHANGED THE WORLD, which is on the state curricula in New York and Louisiana.