David Richard Whelan – 50th Reunion Essay

David Richard Whelan

Date of Death: 23-May-2007

College: Trumbull

(This memorial is reprinted from the Class Website.)

Richard Whelan was a noted cultural historian, scholar, and one of the great photography writers of the 20th Century. Mr. Whelan was the author of several biographical books including: Robert Capa: A Biography, Robert Capa: The Definitive Collection, Robert Capa at Work: This is War!, and Alfred Stieglitz: A Biography. With author Evan Cornog he wrote Hats in The Ring: An Illustrated History of American Presidential Campaigns.

Richard Whelan was the Consulting Curator of the Robert and Cornell Capa archives at The International Center of Photography in New York. He was also a faculty member of the International Center of Photography School. He was a very close friend of Cornell Capa, who founded the ICP.

Cornell Capa was the younger brother of famed war photographer and photojournalist Robert Capa. A pacifist, Robert Capa spent his adult life covering five wars to photograph and document the horrors of war for the world to see. Robert Capa age 40 stepped on a landmine and was killed in IndoChina in 1954 while on assignment for Life Magazine.

According to the National Press Photographer Association’s website, “Capa said he was motivated 20 years later to found ICP at a time when photojournalism seemed to be taking a backseat to television and film, and over his concern about how to ‘keep alive’ the work of photojournalists after their death (a personal experience for the photographer in light of his famous brother’s work).”

Richard Whelan was buried at Amawalk Friends Cemetery with the Capa family of Robert Capa, mother Julia (Friedmann) Capa, younger brother Cornell Capa and his beloved wife Edith. The graves are on a slope near the back of the cemetery with the profound quiet of the trees and woods landscape.