DATES:
June 14, 1904 or 1906-1971
ABOUT HER
Margaret Bourke-White first started taking photos for Fortune
magazine, then switched to Life magazine. She worked hard and
quickly became known as a photojournalist who would take risks.
She was the first
Western photographer allowed into Russia in 1930 and the first woman
to be an accredited war correspondent with the U.S. troops. She crossed
the German border with General Patton's troops and her photos of the
death camps were so good that Life magazine published them, breaking
their tradition of never showing the messier parts of war. She was the
only foreign photographer in Moscow when the Germans invaded and her
photos of the event were riveting. She is perhaps mostly well known
for her photo after World War II of Ghandi at his spinning wheel. For
many years her home was the top floor of the Chrysler building in New
York City.
Throughout her
life she fought against racism and poverty with her pictures of the
victims of the dust bowl drought, poor tenant farmers in the American
South, black flood victims in Kentucky, and of blacks and whites in
South Africa during apartheid.
Margaret Bourke-White
died in Connecticut in 1971.
AWARDS/HONORS
- Took the photo
on the first cover of Life magazine
- First woman
to be an accredited war correspondent with the U.S. troops
- First Western
photographer allowed into Russia
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The 100 Most Influential Women of All Time: A Ranking Past and Present,
Deborah G. Felder
Portrait of Myself, Margaret Bourke-White
Eyes on Russia, Margaret Bourke-White
