Margaret Bourke-White
1904–1971

Margaret Bourke-White was among the most significant photographers and photojournalists of the twentieth century. She began her career as a commercial photographer, and her early photographs of steel manufacture demonstrated that modern industry could be a fertile subject for artists. In 1929 the publishing magnate Henry Luce hired her as associate editor and staff photographer for his forthcoming venture, Fortune magazine. The publication’s expanded interpretation of “modern business” gave Bourke-White an opportunity to travel around the world, recording a diverse array of industrial subjects. Bourke- White’s romantic vision of the Machine Age evolved in the mid-1930s into an engagement with more humanistic concerns when she was commissioned to shoot photo essays for Luce’s next endeavor, LIFE magazine. She pioneered this form with an eye for contemporary social issues, collaborating with the author Erskine Caldwell to document the plight of sharecroppers in the South in the 1937 book You Have Seen Their Faces. That same year, Bourke-White was assigned to document the devastation wrought by the massive flooding of the Ohio River valley. The Louisville Flood, published in the February 15, 1937, issue of LIFE, depicts African American flood victims standing in a relief line with baskets and pails in hand. Behind them looms a massive billboard that portrays a carefree Caucasian family motoring across a pastoral landscape as bold graphics proclaim, “World’s Highest Standard of Living” and “There’s no way like the American Way.” Removed from its original photojournalistic context, this most recognizable of Bourke-White’s images has come to represent the nation’s racial inequalities and, for many, the inaccessibility of the American Dream the billboard presents.

Introduction

Margaret Bourke-White (; June 14, 1904 – August 27, 1971) was an American photographer and documentary photographer. She was the first foreign photographer permitted to take pictures of Soviet industry under the Soviets' first five-year plan, was the first American female war photojournalist, and took the photograph (of the construction of Fort Peck Dam) that became the cover of the first issue of Life magazine.

Wikidata identifier

Q238364

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Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed November 27, 2024.

Introduction

Born 14 June 1904; died 27 August 1971. Photojournalist for Time, Fortune, and Life magazines. American photographer.

Country of birth

United States

Roles

Artist, photographer, photojournalist

ULAN identifier

500023145

Names

Margaret Bourke-White, Margaret Bourke, Margaret Bourke-White Caldwell, Margaret White, Margaret Bourke White, Margaret Bourke- White, Margaret née White

View the full Getty record

Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed November 27, 2024.



On the Hour

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Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

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