By Holly Stuart Hughes

Roughly 700 members of the photo community gathered in New York on Sept. 10 to celebrate the life of photojournalist Cornell Capa and the institution he founded, the International Center of Photography. Capa died on May 23 at the age of 90 after battling Parkinson's disease for many years.

ICP director Willis "Buzz" Hartshorn and photographers Don McCullin, Susan Meiselas, and Micha Bar-An were among the speakers at the memorial event at The New York Times Building. They recalled Capa's determination to create an institution that would preserve and celebrate the "concerned photography" exemplified by his brother, Robert Capa, and other photojournalists.

In his opening remarks, Harttshorn noted that in 1974, when Capa founded ICP, there were only two galleries in New York selling photography and the only institution that regular showed photography as the Museum of Modern Art.  Hartshorn said Capa believed "photography had a kind of moral imperative in its ability to shape ourselves and our sense of the world."

Dedicating himself to preserving the photographic legacy of his brother and other photojournalists, Capa "led a very simple life," Hartshorn said, noting that he and his wife lived in a small walk-up apartment that had one room devoted to storing prints and negatives.

Friends recalled the generosity and warmth that Capa and his wife, Edie, who died in 2001, showed to photographers and colleagues.

"There was always a welcome in the Capa household," said McCullin, who first met Capa while covering the Six-Day War in Israel and was later given an exhibition at ICP. "They treated me dearly and kindly."

McCullin also paid tribute to Capa's work as a photojournalist. "That he stood in the shadow of his brother was unfair, I thought, because Cornell did have a truly compassionate eye in the way he saw the world.... As photographers we have often tried to change the world. We haven't changed it as much as we wanted, but Cornell was the banner that we followed."

Anna Winand, executive assistant at ICP, noted the loyalty that Capa inspired in those who worked at the museum. (She herself expected to stay for a year, and eventually worked there for 33.) "With that golden heart, he made us a family – a rowdy, international family."

Other speakers at the ceremony were photographer Chester Higgins; ICP board member Karl Katz; and family fried Samuel L. (Tony) Millbank.

The overflow crowd included a delegation from Hungary, Capa's home country, led by the minister of education and culture. Others present included many members of Capa's agency, Magnum Photos, including Gilles Peress, Elliott Erwitt, Alex Webb, Bruce Davidson, and present and past directors Mark Lubell, Alice Rose George and Nathan Benn. Others present included photographers Mary Ellen Mark, Jay Maisel, Pete Turner, Lynn Goldsmith, Ed Kashi, Barbara Bordnick, Jill Enfield and Vivianne Moos; Anthony Bannon of the George Eastman House; critics Philip Gefter, A.D. Coleman, Fred Richin and Robert Stevens; and photo agents Robert Pledge, Marcel Saba, and Stephen Mayes.

At the end of the ceremony, Hartshorn said,  "Whether he is looking down at us or he's looking up at us, Cornell would be very happy we are here to celebrate what he would call 'the chaos I've wrought.'"

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May 23: Cornell Capa, Photographer and ICP Founder, Dies at 90