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DAY 93 | FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPHERS |
Margaret Bourke–White (1904–1971)
BRIGHT, BOLD, AND BRAVE
Margaret Bourke-White was known for her tenacity and fearlessness, two traits an early female photojournalist and first female war photographer had to have. A trailblazer in many respects, her career required her to work in dangerous conditions while covering wars and major events all over the world. Whether hanging out of bombers, climbing the Chrysler Building, or witnessing the atrocities during the opening of the gates of Nazi Germany’s Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Bourke-White boldly moved where no woman had ever gone before.1
Her career began in Cleveland, Ohio, where her early photographs captured the bold, clean lines of American industry with a crisp aesthetic. These photographs brought her to the attention of Henry Luce, who hired her as the first photographer for Fortune magazine in 1929, and later hired her as the first female photojournalist for Life magazine.2
Bourke-White was both a celebrated artist and a successful businesswoman. Her studio in the new Chrysler Building also hummed with work for advertising clients, including the creation of the biggest photographic mural in America for NBC Studios in Rockefeller Center. However, during the Depression, she began to focus more on social issues, collaborating with Erskine Caldwell on her best-known book, You Have Seen Their Faces. —GC