Google’s Latest Doodle Honors War Photographer Gerda Taro

Google’s latest homepage Doodle is a tribute to the late war photographer Gerda Taro, who would have turned 108 today. Taro was the woman who invented Robert Capa.

“Though she was tiny in stature, Gerda Taro had the heart of a giant,” Google writes. “Known as ‘the little red fox,’ the ginger-haired photographer fearlessly turned her camera lens to capture sensitive and critical images of conflict around the world, producing powerful black-and-white images that informed readers of the newspaper Ce Soir.

“In fact, Taro is considered to be the first female journalist in the world to cover the front lines of conflict.”

Born Gerta Pohorylle, the photographer met a Hungarian Jewish photojournalist named Endre Friedmann in Paris in 1935. After becoming friends and then falling in love, the two changed their names to Gerda Taro and Robert Capa, respectively, in order to break into international markets.

“Capa would go on to co-found the Magnum Photo agency while Taro became known for her fearless reportage,” Google says. “[…] During the last five months of Taro’s short career, she worked alone in Spain before tragically losing her life near El Escorial, northwest of Madrid, while capturing images on the front line of the Spanish Civil War in July 1937.”

Although her war photographs made her a famous photographer in her own right, many of her early photos were misattributed to Capa.

“Here’s to Gerda Taro, who had a photographer’s eye, a journalist’s soul, and a warrior’s courage,” Google says.