Cornell Capa, originally named Kornél Friedmann, was born on April 10th, 1918 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary.
During the course of his life Cornell Capa has had three major and interrelated careers. First, he worked extensively in photojournalism for LIFE magazine, and has long been a member of the influential Magnum Agency. Second, he championed and edited the work of his brother, photo-journalist and war photographer Robert Capa. And lastly, he founded and directed the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York. After the opening of ICP in 1974, Cornell Capa had no time to pursue his own career as a photographer. His modesty and ethics prevented him from using his position to promote his photographs that he made during the (nearly) thirty years he has been with LIFE and Magnum.
Cornell Capa coined the phrase "concerned photographer" to signify a photographer who is passionately dedicated to doing work that will contribute to the understanding or the well-being of humanity- work that focuses with compassion, with intelligence, with warmth and generosity of spirit upon the human condition. It is also a phrase that he used to describe himself. To all his work he brings his love of people and his profound concern for the plight of humanity. Cornell Capa died on May 23rd, 2008 in New York City.