THE untold story of a pioneering female photographer on the front line is the focus of a theatre production heading to Salisbury.

Total Theatre award nominated Idle Motion expose the story of Gerda Taro in Shooting with Light, which comes to Salisbury Arts Centre on Wednesday (October 5).

“It tells an untold story from our history and captures a very special love story," says director Kate Stanley.

“We were inspired to make the show when we found out about the story of Gerda Taro who was the first female photojournalist to die on the frontline, which was during the Spanish Civil War.

“It was at a really interesting time in terms of photography because cameras had suddenly become a lot smaller and technology enabled people to travel with troops much more than they were before that time.

"She was just this absolutely amazing woman, she had fled from Germany and ended up in Paris. She had no money but she learnt how to take photos and she met this man called André Friedmann.

“He was a good photographer but wasn’t managing to sell many photos and together they came up with this idea of creating a fake person called Robert Capa. which they both sold photos under.

"That was the only way they could sell their photos because he was a refugee from Hungary and she was from Germany and they fell in love and they had a classic Hollywood romance."

The couple travelled to Spain to photograph the civil war. Gerda died whilst she was there.

Friedmann who took on the name Robert Kappa went on to receive international recognition as a war photographer while Gerda's story became lost in history. Until her work was uncovered in a suitcase in Mexico.

As Kate explains: “One of the reasons she is not very well known is that all of her work got smuggled out of Paris in a suitcase when the Nazis were approaching in the Second World. It got given to someone in the street in Bordeaux."

The suitcase did not resurface until about 2007 and turned up in a wardrobe in Mexico. The suitcase contained Capa and Gerda's work as well as the work of another photographer.

“Then we thought what we would do is we would tell the story of finding the suitcase and the story of Robert Kappa and Gerda and their relationship," says Kate.

Using innovative staging, physicality and multimedia, internationally Idle Motion piece together her life.

The set is designed to look like the large Mexican suitcase where Gerda’s work was discovered in.

Kate says it is a "real privilege" to bring her story to light. "We generally make shows about aspects of history that have been forgotten in some way or sightly undiscovered or untold. Therefore this really suited are style but actually we just felt a real connection with her story.

"And particularly right now when we look around the world and everything that is happening with refugees and the situation and how we treat people

and actually thinking these two people were incredible talents, both refugees, and bring that into a modern context and think about how we act now and how people acted then. There is a lot of relevance in that way."

"It is really nice when people say they will go and look up here work. It is very rewarding when you make theatre that encourages people to extend their research beyond the show which is what we hope to make."

Kate says: "It is a really interesting story first and for most, and very engaging, and it is fast paced.

"It is quite funny in places and there is a really good love story at the heart of it, which everyone enjoys.

"It is real, which is what we felt very strongly about is these things happened to these people and we feel quite protective of that story in many ways."

The show starts at 8pm. For tickets call the box office on 01722 321744 or go to salisburyartscentre.co.uk