New evidence on mystery of famous 'faked' soldier photo

The stark black-and-white image of a Spanish Civil War soldier tumbling backwards in the moment of death is one of the best-known – and most controversial – war photographs ever taken.

Now, 72 years after the Falling Soldier was first published, an exhibition at the Barbican in London aims to have the last word on whether or not the picture was faked. It will show for the first time in the UK every image taken by the photographer Robert Capa the same day.

The Falling Soldier, officially known as Death of a Loyalist Militiaman, made 22-year-old Capa's reputation. He went on to co-found the Magnum picture agency and establish himself as one of the greatest war photographers.

For years arguments have raged as to whether he set up the picture or whether he had in fact captured a soldier meeting his violent death. In an age when news took months to travel, it was not unusual for photographers to re-create events.

An audit of all the negatives held by the International Center of Photography in New York has turned up previously unknown film taken by both Capa and his lover Gerda Taro the same day the Falling Soldier was photographed – believed to be around 5 September 1936. The new photographs include other images of the soldier, Federico Borrell Garcia, a 24-year-old textile worker. The new material shows, the curators believe, that Garcia was shot, but not in the heat of battle. They believe that a re-enactment of events at the front line near Cordoba attracted enemy interest.

The new images were researched by Capa's biographer Richard Whelan. After Mr Whelan's death last May, his work was taken over by Cynthia Young, who curated the exhibition.

"There are new photographs," she said. "They had been lying in the archive for years. Richard was going through all the pre-1939 images and all of these early negatives and contact sheets were in a mess. They were misdated over years. But he recognised these as being taken on the day of the Falling Soldier. No one knew that these negatives existed. It was assumed they had all gone missing. There were 35mm prints taken from Capa's Leica and Rolleiflex negatives, the camera used by Gerda Taro, which proves beyond doubt for the first time that she was with him on that day.

"There have been various theories about whether the soldier was actually shot in battle. Looking at the photos it is clear that it is not the heat of battle. It is likely the soldiers were carrying out an exercise either for Capa or themselves. The images are ordered according to the numbers on the back of the negatives, so it's the best sequence we can put together and from that we can deduce the story."

There is no doubt the soldier was shot, however. Mr Whelan believed Garcia died almost instantly from a bullet to the heart.

The exhibition will also contain some of the 3,500 unseen negatives of the Spanish Civil War taken by Capa and Taro.

'This is War! Robert Capa at Work' is at the Barbican in London from 17 October until 25 January

Interesting? Click here to explore further