--- title: War Photographer Gerda Taro Honored in Google Doodle description: Today's Google Doodle honors Gerda Taro, a pioneering female war photographer who covered the Spanish Civil War with Robert Capa. canonical: https://time.com/5354929/gerda-taro-google-doodle/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-01T13:22:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:01:31.338Z article:section: History og:title: What to Know About Gerda Taro, the War Photographer Celebrated By Today's Google Doodle og:description: She's the subject of today's Google Doodle og:url: https://time.com/5354929/gerda-taro-google-doodle/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f64218bd700ced4/698936c6929fadd7f9bf1381/gerda-taros-108th-birthday-6208421375246336-2x.png?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: gerda-taros-108th-birthday-6208421375246336-2x og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What to Know About Gerda Taro, the War Photographer Celebrated By Today's Google Doodle twitter:description: She's the subject of today's Google Doodle twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f64218bd700ced4/698936c6929fadd7f9bf1381/gerda-taros-108th-birthday-6208421375246336-2x.png?branch=production&width=1920&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What to Know About Gerda Taro, the War Photographer Celebrated By Today's Google Doodle  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Aug 1, 2018 1:22 PM UTC  Google Doodle  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Aug 1, 2018 1:22 PM UTC Google is paying tribute to pioneering photojournalist Gerda Taro with its [Google Doodle](https://www.google.com/doodles/gerda-taros-108th-birthday) on Wednesday. The Doodle comes on what would have been Taro’s 108th birthday — but the trail-blazing war photographer lost her life at just 26 years old, while covering the Spanish Civil War in 1937\. Nonetheless, Taro managed to accomplish quite a bit in her short career. Taro — born Gerda Pohorylle in Stuttgart, Germany — left Germany for Paris in 1933, after Adolf Hitler become chancellor. In Paris, Taro met and fell in love with photographer Robert Capa, who taught her the basics of the craft, [according to the International Center of Photography](https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/gerda-taro?all/all/all/all/0) (ICP). They began covering the Spanish Civil War as a team starting in 1936, [the BBC reports](https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-25108104), capturing images of troops, conflict and Spanish refugees and sending them back to French newspapers. Eventually, Taro began venturing out alone on photographic missions — including the one in 1937 that led to her death, after she was inadvertently crushed a Loyalist tank, according to ICP. A decade ago, [an exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery](http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/military-history/world-war-two/art61831) in London, featuring many never-before-seen [images taken by Taro and Capa](https://pro.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&ALID=29YL530Z071Y), gave her work new life. Although Taro’s work has been overshadowed by Capa’s, and her legacy remains largely unknown, she is considered one of the world’s first frontline female war photographers, and the first to die in action. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5354929/gerda-taro-google-doodle/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5354929/gerda-taro-google-doodle/"},"headline":"What to Know About Gerda Taro, the War Photographer Celebrated By Today's Google Doodle","datePublished":"2018-08-01T13:22:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T21:01:31.338Z","description":"She was a pioneering photojournalist","url":"https://time.com/5354929/gerda-taro-google-doodle/","keywords":["photography","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f64218bd700ced4/698936c6929fadd7f9bf1381/gerda-taros-108th-birthday-6208421375246336-2x.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f64218bd700ced4/698936c6929fadd7f9bf1381/gerda-taros-108th-birthday-6208421375246336-2x.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"gerda-taros-108th-birthday-6208421375246336-2x","caption":"gerda-taro","creditText":"Google Doodle","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/photography/","name":"photography"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5354929/gerda-taro-google-doodle/","name":"What to Know About Gerda Taro, the War Photographer Celebrated By Today's Google Doodle"}}]}] ```