This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| Margaret Bourke-White was a noted photo journalist, and in this
profession, was a woman of many 'firsts'. She was
a forerunner
in the newly emerging field of photojournalism, and was the first
female to be hired as such. She was the first
photographer for Fortune
magazine, in 1929. In 1930, she was the first Western
photographer allowed into the Soviet Union. Henry Luce hired her
as the first female photojournalist for Life magazine, soon after its creation in 1935, and one of her photographs
adorned its first cover. She was the first female war
correspondent and the first to be allowed to work in combat zones
during World War II, and one of the first photographers to enter and document the death
camps.
She made history with the publication of her haunting photos of
the Depression in the book You Have Seen Their Faces, a collaboration
with husband-to-be Erskine Caldwell. She wrote six books about her
international travels. She was the premiere female industrial
photographer, getting her start in Cleveland, Ohio, at the Otis Steel
Company around 1927.
Her father, Joseph White, was of Polish-Jewish background.
He was an inventor and an engineer. He believed in equality in
education and opportunity for all his children. Margaret's
mother, Minnie Bourke, was of Irish-English ancestry, and was a
loving and nurturing mother. Minnie was completing her college
degree at the time of her death.
Bourke-White began to study photography as a hobby while a very
young woman. She developed the styles and techniques that she needed
for various formats on her own. Her father was also somewhat of a
camera enthusiast and he exposed her to the wonders of the
photographic lens as a youngster.
Margaret was married twice; once to Everett Chapman, when she
was but 18 years old; and to Erskine Caldwell, the writer, in
1939, after they had worked together. They divorced in 1942.
Margaret Bourke-White attended several universities throughout the
United States while pursuing a degree in Herpetology (the study of
reptiles). They included Columbia University in New York,
the University of Michigan, Purdue University in Indiana, Western
Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio,
Cornell University in Ithaca, NY from which she received her
degree in 1927.
Submitted by Mark C. Grove, Charlottesville, Virginia
Sources
www.mgrove.com
www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/bour-mar.htm
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