Margaret Bourke-White (1904-71) was a photographer who had a fascinating career. She went to the Soviet Union in 1930, photographed the Great Depression in 1930s America, and took photos in various wars. Parker Beverly explains – and we also include Parker’s documentary on Margaret below.
American Way of Life, a 1937 photo by Margaret Bourke-White
From the battlefields of Italy during World War II to the tranquil home of Mahatma Gandhi throughout the Partition of India, Margaret Bourke-White was there to capture it all. Born in the Bronx, New York in 1904, Bourke-White grew up in a modest household.[1] It was not until her college years that Margaret began exploring the art of photography.[2] A gifted writer, Bourke-White fused the line between visual and written mediums, creating photographs that spoke to viewers' emotions and sensibilities. A serendipitous shoot at Cleveland's Otis Steel factory landed her industrial photograph portfolio on the desk of Henry Luce, the publisher of Time magazine who tasked her with being the first photographer for Fortune magazine.[3]Climbing atop ledges of the Chrysler Building and entering hazardous industrial factories, Bourke-White soon gained a reputation of being a fearless photographer, undaunted by gender or occupational boundaries.
Her 1931 book Eyes on Russia which documented her travels throughout the nascent industrial Soviet Union through photographs made her the first photographer to capture the country's steadily growing industrialization.[4] In 1937, she along with her then husband, Erskine Caldwell published You Have Seen Their Faces which detailed the plight of poor rural Southerners in the midst of economic hardship.[5] It was this experience with suffering along with a Fortune assignment covering Midwestern droughts[6] that changed Bourke-White's photography from an advertiser's lens to one depicting the human condition. One of her more famous photographs captures the stark difference between commercial and racial realities in the United States with a line of African Americans seeking emergency aid pictured against a billboard depicting a white unaffected family.
Wars
In 1936, Margaret's career changed focus as she transitioned into her role as a staff photographer for Life Magazine.[7] Well regarded for its photo essays which documented everything from the building of the Fort Peck Dam to a wartime Thanksgiving, Life provided a national platform for Bourke-White's photography. Seeking to relay news from the battlefield to the home front, Life sent Margaret to photograph various scenes from World War II including torpedo attacks, bombing missions, and the liberation of concentration camps.[8] Soon after, she captured the struggles of apartheid in South Africa and lastly, documented the strife of the Korean War.[9] While in Korea, Bourke-White began noticing symptoms of Parkinson's disease, a condition which she fought for nearly 20 years.[10]
I came across Margaret's fascinating story while researching for the National History Day (NHD) contest in 2017. I was struck by the lack of coverage on her remarkable and pioneering photojournalism career and knew I wanted to tell her story. Interviewing individuals such as Cokie Roberts and Judy Woodruff, I brought her noteworthy narrative to life through a documentary film seen in both the NHD contest and the All-American High School Film Festival. Three years later, I am still inspired by Margaret's overwhelming tenacity. Today, her photographs still provide relevant discussion of important moments in history while her trailblazing career encourages others to follow their passions.
You can see Parker’s film on Margaret Bourke-White below. Let us know what you think below.
[1] Vicki Goldberg, Margaret Bourke-White: A Biography (New York City, NY: HarperCollins, 1986).
[2] Ibid.
[3] Beverly W. Brannan, “Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971),” Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Jay E. Caldwell, Erskine Caldwell, Margaret Bourke-White, and the Popular Front: Photojournalism in Russia (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2016).
[6] Beverly W. Brannan, “Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971),” Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, https://loc.gov/rr/print/coll/womphotoj/bourkewhiteessay.html.
[7] Margaret Bourke-White, Portrait of Myself (New York City, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963).
[8] Ibid.
[9] Vicki Goldberg, Margaret Bourke-White: A Biography (New York City, NY: HarperCollins, 1986).
[10] Ibid.
