“It is my firm belief that democracy will not lose hold as long as people really know what is going on, and the photographer has a very valuable part to do in showing what is going on.”
-Margaret Bourke-White
Thursday, March 7, 2013
A Snapshot of Her Life...
Margaret Bourke-White was one of the greatest photojournalists in American history. Her established career flourished in the 1930's and 40's. With her critical eye she traveled the world and brought many social issues into public view and in many cases forced issues into the forefront of discussion.
Learn more...
The Great Depression
This clever image ingeniously captured the bleakness and hopelessness of this time period. Margaret Bourke-White's irony brought the struggles of these individuals into the limelight, making a statement as to how ideals have changed from materialistic times to essentially pure survival mode.
Buchenwald
Margaret Bourke-White came across one of her most difficult
assignments as she traveled across the sea to the German Concentration Camp of
Buchenwald.
Margaret Bourke-White wrote of her experience; she exclaimed, “There was an air of unreality
about that April day in Weimar, a feeling to which I found myself stubbornly
clinging. I kept telling myself that I would believe the indescribably horrible
sight in the courtyard before me only when I had a chance to look at my own
photographs. Using the camera was almost a relief; it interposed a slight
barrier between myself and the white horror in front of me.
This whiteness had the fragile
translucence of snow, and I wished that under the bright April sun which shone
from a clean blue sky it would all simply melt away. I longed for it to
disappear, because while it was there I was reminded that men actually had done
this thing — men with arms and legs and eyes and hearts not so very unlike our
own. And it made me ashamed to be a
member of the human race.
The several hundred other
spectators who filed through the Buchenwald courtyard on that sunny April
afternoon were equally unwilling to admit association with the human beings who
had perpetrated these horrors. But their reluctance had a certain tinge of self-interest;
for these were the citizens of Weimar, eager to plead their ignorance of the
outrages.”
"Women of Steel"
The photo essays by Margaret Bourke-White showed pride and
faith that glamorized working women. They became heroic figures and shattered
stereotypes of womanly work.
(Streitmatter,153-155)
Margaret Bourke-White made great strides in advancing
working women in the workforce. By depicting these women as strong, capable
workers, she inadvertently motivated women to seek even more opportunity to do
their part in aiding the war towards victory. She highlighted their skills and
abilities to do, what was thought at the time, “men’s work”. They did “men’s
work” out of necessity for their country in support of the war while their
husbands, brothers, or fathers were away during WWII. This photo gave many women
pride and a sense that they were doing their part in the efforts to win the
war.
Quotes from working women:
Quotes from working women:
Sybil Lewis, who worked at Lockheed Aviation said that "it wasn't just a job":
“You came out to California, put on your pants, and took your lunch pail to a man’s job. This was the beginning of women feeling that they could do something more".
“You came out to California, put on your pants, and took your lunch pail to a man’s job. This was the beginning of women feeling that they could do something more".
Inez Sauer, who worked at Boeing, added:
“My mother warned me when I took the job that I would never
be the same. She said, ‘You will never want to go back to being a housewife.’
At that time I didn’t think it would change a thing. But she was right…at
Boeing I found a freedom and an independence that I had never known. After the
war I could never go back to playing bridge again, being a club woman…when I
knew there were things you could use your mind for. The war changed my life
completely".
Her Final Days...
Margaret Bourke-White worked on her craft up until the weeks leading to her death. Later in life Margaret unfortunately developed a disease call Parkinson’s; this disease threatened and eventually succeeded in taking away her livelihood. Parkinson's attacks a person’s central nervous system and impairs their motor skills. However, Margaret Bourke-White did not go without a fight; she continued to take photos, and even when she could no longer snap the shot herself, she accomplished this via an assistant in order to get those all important images that captured the truth.
"I feel that utter truth is essential, and to get that truth
it may take a lot of searching and long hours."
Other Women Photojournalists in Her Time…
Women
who came to prominence in the 1930s to 1950s
- Mary Marvin Breckinridge (Mrs. Jefferson Patterson) (1905-2002)
- Charlotte Brooks (born 1918)
- Esther Bubley (1921-1998)
- Marjory Collins (1912-1985)
- Toni Frissell (1907-1988)
- Dorothea Lange (1895-1965)
- Hansel Mieth (1909-1998)
- Ann Rosener (born 1914)
- Louise Rosskam (1910-2003)
- Marion Post Wolcott (1910-1990)
- Katherine Young (1906-1993)
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