Imatge de l'autor

Margaret Bourke-White (1904–1971)

Autor/a de You Have Seen Their Faces

17+ obres 451 Membres 5 Ressenyes 1 preferits

Sobre l'autor

Inclou el nom: Margaret Bourke White

Crèdit de la imatge: Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery (image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)

Obres de Margaret Bourke-White

Obres associades

Written by Herself, Volume I: Autobiographies of American Women (1992) — Col·laborador — 426 exemplars
New York: Portrait Of A City (2012) — Fotògraf — 121 exemplars
The Best-Loved Dog Stories of Albert Payson Terhune (1937) — Il·lustrador, algunes edicions37 exemplars
100 Best True Stories of World War II (1945) — Col·laborador — 29 exemplars
Breaking the Frame: Pioneering Women in Photojournalism (2006) — Fotògraf — 4 exemplars

Etiquetat

Coneixement comú

Data de naixement
1904-06-14
Data de defunció
1971-10-27
Gènere
female
Nacionalitat
USA
Lloc de naixement
The Bronx, New York, USA
Lloc de defunció
Stamford, Connecticut, USA
Llocs de residència
Bound Brook, New Jersey, USA
Darien, Connecticut, USA
Educació
Cornell University
Professions
photographer
Relacions
Caldwell, Erskine (husband|divorced)
Organitzacions
Fortune
Life

Membres

Ressenyes

I chose this book (for a book report on biographical material I had to write for a college journalism/photography class in 1975) for two reasons. First, it is about a female photographer, and I was interested in learning what it was like to be a major photographer from one of my own gender. Second, the book is an autobiography, which I feel is more reliable than a biography. In the latter, the subject's thoughts and feelings are often lost or twisted in the biographer's own mind-maze of opinions and ideas.

I found Margaret Bourke-White to be as good a writer as she is a photographer. Her wording was clear, her organization logical, her style not pompous (which one often doesn't expect coming from famous people).

What I found most impressive about Miss Bourke-White was her great courage. She was never afraid (or never showed it) in dangerous situations. And she was in plenty of those....bombing raids, a sinking ship, the Italian front in World War II, deep in gold mines, and in the midst of Korean guerrilla warfare. And yet, throughout these episodes, she did not call attention to her lack of fear. Only an explanation for it was given in the first chapter.

Another aspect that amazed me was that she was able to do all the things she did. That's surprising, considering she's a she, and this was long before the women's liberation movement!

Also interesting were the three stages Margaret Bourke-White seemed to go through in her photographic career, stages I imagine most serious photographers go through. She began by taking pictures of what she liked best....dramatic industrial scenes in her case. Later, after beginning to work for the industrial magazine Fortune, she found beautiful pictures weren't enough. In her words, "Working for the integrated whole require[s] a much wider conception....pictures could be beautiful, but must tell facts, too....the idea of searching to record the 'unseen half' [is] an invaluable habit for a photographer to form" (page 70).

Then, after an assignment to photograph the situation in the Dust Bowl, she learned something else:

"I think this was the beginning of my awareness of people in a human, sympathetic sense as subjects for the camera and photographed against a wider canvas than I had perceived before. During the rapturous period when I was discovering the beauty of industrial shapes, people were only incidental to me, and in retrospect I believe I had not much feeling for them in my earlier work. But suddenly it was the people who counted.(page 110)....a man is more than a figure to put into the background of a photograph for scale...I was learning that to understand another human being you must gain some insight into the conditions which made him what he is. The people and the forces which shape them: each holds the key to the other. These are relationships that can be studied and photographed" (pages 134 and 136).

I feel that was the most valuable point in the book, a lesson which I will remember.
… (més)
1 vota
Marcat
riofriotex | Hi ha 1 ressenya més | Jul 20, 2021 |
This is a famous work that's received plenty of attention already, both negative and positive. The controversies surrounding the work revolve around the authors and their 'honest' documentation around the world around them, as well as their methods of study and documentation. The work as a whole though, regardless of criticisms, does provide a careful (if biased) documentation of poverty in the United States around the Depression, particularly in regard to share croppers and tenant farmers. The photos are hard-hitting and carry an impact, with short prose sections to describe some of the history involved. If you're interested, the book's critical reception is worth looking up. The prose is dry, but short, but combined with the photographs it does make for a quick and memorable look back into U.S. history.… (més)
½
 
Marcat
whitewavedarling | Hi ha 1 ressenya més | Apr 12, 2010 |
very positive story. my favourite read is women's autobiography
 
Marcat
mahallett | Hi ha 1 ressenya més | Mar 28, 2008 |
A fabulous period piece on America. Great photos by Margaret Bourke-White
 
Marcat
golfjr | Hi ha 1 ressenya més | Jan 7, 2006 |

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Estadístiques

Obres
17
També de
5
Membres
451
Popularitat
#54,392
Valoració
4.0
Ressenyes
5
ISBN
28
Llengües
2
Preferit
1

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