Margaret Bourke-White (1904 to 1971)
Margaret Bourke-White contributed many things to the world of photography. She was a woman, doing a man’s job, in a man’s world, from the foundries of Cleveland to the battlefields in World War II. She was an original staff photographer for two of the most prominent magazines of her day, Fortune and Life. She led a life full of adventure, pioneering a new art form: photojournalism. Margaret Bourke-White was, and still is, one of the most important photographers of the twentieth century.
Information courtesy of Swann Galleries Inc. October, 2003
Margaret Bourke-White is a woman of many firsts. She was a forerunner in the newly emerging field of photojournalism, and was the first female to be hired as such. She was the first photographer for Fortune magazine, in 1929. In 1930, she was the first Western photographer allowed into the Soviet Union. Henry Luce hired her as the first female photojournalist for Life magazine, soon after its creation in 1935, and one of her photographs adorned its first cover. Bourke-White became a photographer for the airlines in 1935, developing the skill (and bravery) she would also use as the first female war correspondent. She was the first to be allowed to work in combat zones during World War II, and one of the first photographers to enter and document the death camps. She made history with the publication of her haunting photos of the Depression in the book “You Have Seen Their Faces”, a collaboration with husband-to-be Erskine Caldwell.
Information courtesy of PBA Galleries, March 2003