The Magnificent Eleven

What you are looking at is one of the most famous war photographs ever taken. Robert Capa, a Hungarian American photojournalist, waded ashore with American soldiers during the D-Day landings at Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. While bullets flew and men fell around him, Capa kept shooting, capturing the chaos and fear of that historic morning. The blur you see is not a mistake. It comes from the trembling hands of a man under fire and from a darkroom accident that damaged most of his film, leaving only a handful of usable frames.

The name "The Magnificent Eleven" refers to the small number of pictures that survived, though some accounts say the real story of the ruined negatives is more myth than fact. Either way, the grainy, shaky quality gives these images a raw power that a clean, sharp photo never could. You feel like you are right there in the surf, struggling toward the shore. Capa once said, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough," and few photographers ever got closer than he did here. His work later inspired filmmakers, including the unforgettable opening of Saving Private Ryan.