Celebrating Margaret Bourke-White
What would we talk about if she came to dinner?
Margaret was 26 when this picture was taken and already infamous for her work. She had just set up a studio in the Chrysler building and could be seen braving exposure and heights on fine days like this one:
She had won the favour of Henry Luce, founder of both Time and Fortune magazines and joined him as a staffer alongside taking independent commissions from industrialists and architecture firms.
Seeing the world through the eye of her camera lens is to see surprising contrast: the smooth curves of an aeroplane’s wings against the geometry of a city seen from above; Fibonacci curves of steel coiling onto a factory floor; women striking power poses holding rakes in a cornfield.
Margaret seemed to be at ease anywhere with anyone.
How did she gain access to those industrial sites, the exclusive domain of men at the time?
How did she manage to capture images inside German concentration camps during WWII?
How did she get close enough to catch that final image of Gandhi?
She must’ve been a smooth talker to charm foremen, prison guards and foreign dignitaries. A regular Don Draper and clever raconteur.
The stories she could tell! I’d want to invite her in middle age before Parkinson’s took its toll, where the accumulated years of experiences lie behind the twinkly eyes and smile of a woman who knows how to get what she wants.
