'A very serious business'

Veteran combat photographer Robert Capa famously said, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you aren't close enough." Off the Normandy coast on D-Day, Capa, a self-described gambler, opted to go in with Easy Company in the first wave. "The water was cold, and the beach still more than a hundred yards away. The bullets tore holes in the water around me, and I made for the nearest steel obstacle." Capa then began to squeeze off photographs despite his trembling hands and feeling "a new kind of fear shaking my body from toe to hair, and twisting my face." Shooting three rolls of film, Capa kept his sanity by repeating over and over a phrase he had learned during the Spanish Civil War: "Es una cosa muy seria" ("This is a very serious business"). After capturing 106 frames, Capa retreated to a nearby landing craft and out of harm's way. Sadly, all but 10 frames were later lost during development in England when a lab technician improperly processed the film. Still, the surviving photos became iconic images of that day on Omaha beach.