over a career that spanned more than

three decades pioneering photographer

Margaret bourke-white documented some of
the most important people and events of
the first half of the 20th century as
the first female photographer for Life
magazine and the first American woman to
serve as a war photojournalist
her remarkable work to help bring the
world to the American public and stands
as a testament to her willingness to
push the boundaries of what was
acceptable for women of her time
Margaret's career is extraordinary in
that she was the most famous industrial
photographer then she was the most
famous photo journalistic photographer
that's pretty uncommon to be the most
famous in two different parts of the
medium and that she was a woman is
extraordinary she did carve a path for
women because she charged a head and she
made it and what was supposedly a man's
world
she's a luminary she's such a
significant figure in American life
Margaret's career was pioneering because
the photographs that she took were so
widely consumed so widely appreciated
and at the same time because of the
larger-than-life personality and because
of the fact that she bore witness and
her camera were witness to the major
events of the 20th century margaret was
born in 1904 in Bronx New York the
daughter of Minnie Burke and Joseph
white the middle of three children
Margaret inherited strong beliefs and
personal and social progress from her
parents
Margaret enrolled in Columbia University
to study biology when her father died
the following year her financial
situation changed and she attended
multiple universities ultimately earning
her degree from Cornell in 1927 Margaret
then moved to Cleveland Ohio which she
opened a commercial studio specializing
in construction and industrial
photography fields that had been
important to her engineer father
well I think it was unusual for a woman
to be photographing period and the fact
that she was photographing industrial
sites putting herself at risk but also
manipulating a machine she was using
technology just as she was documenting
technology she was a woman who braved
the dangers of industrial sites while
masterfully manipulating the technology
of the camera Industrial photography had
been very straight very clear and rather
boring she found a way to get up close
to find the repetition to find the thing
that would symbolize an entire plant in
one picture you could just call it an
extraordinary modernistic beauty in 1929
Margaret moved to New York City when
Time magazine editor Henry Luce offered
her the first photography staff position
for his new magazine fortune she was
hired to take photographs of the
Chrysler Building which was under
construction she went up on that with a
large-format camera and she was up on
the scaffolds with the construction
workers in 1930 margaret learned on
assignment to germany and from there
arranged travel to the soviet union
where she became the first Western
photographer to photograph Soviet
industrial sites she came back and she
was on the radio all the time she
eventually published a book about it
she made revolutionary russia available
to an American public
during the Great Depression Margaret
travelled to the Midwest for Fortune
magazine experiencing firsthand the
personal devastation of the Dust Bowl
Margaret went up there and saw something
that she and most Americans had never
seen and it did touch her and it did
begin to turn her toward a more
documentary a more humanistic kind of
photography
Margaret remained with Fortran until
1936 when Henry Luce invited her to join
the staff of his new enterprise Life
magazine
she was the only woman among the four
original photographers her first
assignment was to photograph Fort Peck
Dam they put her picture of the dam on
the front cover and they gave her the
first lead essay in 1937
Life magazine sent Margaret to
Czechoslovakia and Spain to capture the
rise of the Nazi Party when she returned
home she married writer Erskine Caldwell
in the couple bought a home in Darien
Connecticut where Margaret would live
throughout the rest of her life
even after her divorce in 1942
Margaret's next photography assignment
took her back to the Soviet Union where
she was the only foreign photographer
who remained in Moscow when the first
German bombs fell in 1941 she went to
the embassy and went up on the roof
where she was in some very real danger
and photograph night after night and she
got the trajectory of the bombs that
were falling when the u.s. entered World
War two
Margaret sought another overseas
assignment her editors then arranged for
her to be embedded with the US Army Air
Force Margaret was the first female
correspondent in the war and she was the
only woman believed during the entire
war who went on a bombing mission
at the end of the war Margaret travelled
through Germany with General Patton and
was one of the first photojournalist to
document the horrors of the
concentration camps as they were
liberated producing some of her most
iconic photographs she speaks in her
autobiography quite openly about the
camera kind of providing that protective
layer so that she could continue with
the work without being so distraught
it's an incredibly powerful series and
it was hugely influential on her life
throughout the rest of her career miss
bourke-white continued to take overseas
assignments often related to human
rights issues she wrote about and
photographed violence that erupted
during the partition of India and
Pakistan she documented the mistreatment
of blacks under apartheid in South
Africa in 1948 she interviewed and
photographed Indian leader Mahatma
Gandhi just a few hours before his
assassination she took pictures other
people did not take what they say about
photographers you have to be at the
right place at the right time she
arranged to be in the right place at the
right time while covering the Korean War
Margaret noticed the first signs of
Parkinson's disease she retired from
life magazine in 1957 and lived
permanently in Darien Margaret
bourke-white authored or co-authored 19
books her autobiography portrait of
myself published in 1963 became a
best-seller she also received numerous
awards and honorary degrees in 1971
Margaret bourke-white died at the age of
67
but her photographic legacy lives on
I think she really helps to kind of
raise the consciousness of a generation
people to human rights I think that the
willingness to put herself at risk also
served to kind of help construct this
notion of Margaret as the new American
woman who would defy gender conventions
at times while also playing up to them
in order to get the job done
Margaret was driven she was aggressive
when she needed to be she was like any
good photographer whatever it took she
did and found a way to do it and she was
fearless