Margaret Bourke-White
1904-1971
Personal Background
Margaret Bourke-White was born in NewYork City in 1904. When she was 17 years old she attended the Clarence H. White School of Photography until 1927. After college she opened a photography studio which brought the attention of Henry Luce, who hired Margaret and sent her to the Soviet Union in 1929. Later, Henry hired her for his new magazine Life, her picture Fort Peck Dam was on the cover of the first Life magazine. Margaret then continued to use pictures for journalism.
Style
Margaret loved taking black and white pictures of people and important places and things. She used her photography to illustrate current social issues from her perspective. In her pictures she loved to capture exactly what the mood was in that exact moment which is something extremely powerful to do in a photo. Her work was beautiful in the way that it brought attention to somethings that worn't payed enough attention to and the work she did helped bring emotion and fascination into the things she photographed. Her pictures alway look so simple but carry a heavy amount of emotion.
Philosophy
Margarets commitment to social justice was obvious in her work; in fact, the FBI had been building a file on her since the 1930s. She used her photography to show many social injustice around the world. She took some pictures at the end of world war two of people in a concentration camps which were some of the first photos to document the true horror of the Holocaust. Margaret also documented the lives of African American sharecroppers in the south as she was involved in the civil rights movement. Most of her pictures were taken with a purpose to promote social injustice in America and many other places around the world.
nfluences
I was shocked and amazed by the way that Margaret was able to capture so much emotion in a picture. I am very inspired in photography and in life by looking at her photos. One thing I really love about her and her photography is the way that she wasn't afraid to show the rest of the world the ugly and sad part and she also was taking pictures to spread things that she really believed in which shows that not only was she an amazing photographer, she was also an amazing person. Looking at her images have inspired me to take powerful pictures of important things that I see and care about in hope to spread the idea or topic with emotion.
Sources
https://wednesdayswomen.com/margaret-bourke-white-trailblazing-american-photojournalist/
https://www.phillipscollection.org/research/american_art/bios/bourkewhite-bio.htm
https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/margaret-bourke-white?all/all/all/all/0
https://www.phillipscollection.org/research/american_art/bios/bourkewhite-bio.htm
https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/margaret-bourke-white?all/all/all/all/0