on June 12, 2013 at the Hungarian Institute of Foreign Affairs, Budapest

Secretary General Caracciolo di Vietri, Deputy Assistant Secretary Reaker, Political Directors from the Counties of the Central European Initiative, Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen, Colleagues, Friends:

It is a great pleasure for me to welcome you in Budapest on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Political Directors of the Central European Initiative, chaired this year by Hungary. My very special welcome goes to the high-level US delegation headed by Mr. Philip Reaker, deputy assistant secretary with whom you have joint talks today.

We thought that this small exhibition dedicated to the life and work of one of the most outstanding photographers of the last century, Robert Capa, would fit the occasion. Right at the outset, I wopuld like to thank for those who have helped prepare this, colleagues from the cultural desk, Director Andrea Komáromy and Ms. Ágota Bába, who deserves particular credit.

Robert Capa is one of those famous Hungarians, who link Hungary and Central Europe at large with America. He was born a Hungarian as Endre Friedmann in 1913 in Budapest and died an American citizen in Vietnam, in 1954 as Robert Capa, legendary war reporter and photographer, killed by a land mine while accompanying retreating French troops there. The UNESCO has put the centenary of his birth on this year’s list of anniversaries recommended for commemoration worldwide.

Capa (whose artist name reads cápa, i. e. ‘shark’ in Hungarian, a nickname he had deserved as a mischievous kid back in Budapest) was a typically Central European figure. He emerged from his middle class Jewish family to become a cosmopolitan celebrity, poor Central European émigré first, elegant American ex-pat in Paris later, a close friend of people like Hemingway, Gene Kelly or Ingrid Bergman. His heritage, in the form of about 70.000 negatives is preserved at the New York International Center of Photography. It was his brother Cornell Capa and his biographer, friend Richard Whelan, who selected and developed 937 negatives, limiting their reproduction to three series. One of the three was purchased by the Hungarian government and is kept at the National Museum. May I especially welcome Ms. Beatrix Cs. Lengyel Beatrix and Ms. Éva Fisli, museologists and curators of the exhibition.

Capa had a short but intense life. He took pictures in five theaters of war: during the Spanish civil war, the Japanese invasion of China, on the western front of WWII, during the first Arab-Israeli war and in Indochina. He was in combat zone, with the second wave of American marines during the allied invasion of Normandy. He was present at the liberation of Paris. He accompanied John Steinbeck on his journey to illustrate his report book about Soviet Russia in 1947. In 1949, he collaborated with another American writer, when they travelled to the newly established State of Israel. But in between, he returned to Central Europe, including Czechoslovakia and his native Hungary to document the destruction caused by the war.

Capa was a restless adventurer, a lady’s man, a celebrity. But he would not be remembered for that. His life and work were pervaded by an unquenchable thirst for freedom and his legendary courage. His utmost ambition was to capture the moment. He famously said: ‘If your pictures are not good enough, it is because you’re not close enough’. But there was more to this statement than just bravery. In his case, it meant closeness not only in physical space but also in humanity: compassion. While looking at his photos, you will appreciate their value in today’s photoshop world!

This gambler of indomitable spirit was deeply saddened whenever he felt he was unable to help but only observe human suffering. But he was wrong. When he died, his friend Steinbeck wrote in his obituary: ‘He knew that you cannot photograph war, because it is largely emotion. … He could show the horror of a whole people in the face of a child’. And he showed something else, too: that the Heisenberg principle applies not only in quantum physics but also to human history: by observing, you also change reality . He was called the greatest war photographer of all time. And that was precisely why and how his photographs helped discredit war and promote the cause of freedom and peace.

Arts and culture are the best vehicle for the promotion of the image and the interests of a country or a region, as in this case. But truly great artists also make this world a better place. They remind us that we too have the same, ultimate responsibility.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)