Margaret Bourke-White

Why We Chose Margaret Bourke-White


The reason Candace M. Kinney and Ben J. Thompson chose Margaret Bourke-white was because her photographs capture both influential people as well as architecture and shapes. Margaret Bourke-White was one of the last photographers to photograph Gandhi hours before he was assassinated. Margaret also took shots of Jawaharlal Nehru who was a senior political leader of the Indian National Congress.

Margaret takes amazing architectural pictures that deal with many different shapes. As shown in the picture of Diversion Tunnels, the shapes of the tunnels work well to make this picture so amazing. In this photography she uses visual paths to pull you from the left of the photograph to the right with the decrease in size of the tunnels. She has another photograph of the one of these tunnels with a man walking it that shows the size and majesty of it. Also, in other work of hers, she usually puts building and other architectural structures in weird positions to help enhance the photograph to make the shot more interesting.

For the most part, we chose to pick Margaret Bourke-White because we had heard a lot about her photography before in earlier classes and we noticed her amazing range of photography when we search for her name. Margaret is just an all around amazing photographer with amazing talents for picture taking.

Biography
Margaret Bourke-White was a very influential photographer of her time because she captured a variety of images including people, structures, and many more. She was born June 14th, 1904 into a world that was very close-minded about women in the work force. Margaret was shielded from the outside world by her mother who raised and taught her and her sister at an early age. One day her father took her to the foundry he worked at and what she saw changed her life forever. She followed her father around and everything he liked, she was interesting also. Pretending to take photographs, she used an old cigar box and took great notes when she saw him take pictures.

She went to college at Rutgers, and her freshman year she started taking pictures for the yearbook and eventually was offered a seat as the photography editor. She declined and decided she wanted to focus on her new married life and give up photography. The marriage did not work out and she went back to school to pursue photography once again. She tried taking photography and putting together a grand portfolio trying to catch the attention of the well known. There was a time she was working out of her one room apartment but when she took pictures of the Otis Steel Mill, it won her a small fortune and allowed her to move her studio to the Terminal Tower Skyscraper.

Henry R. Luce, a publisher of a new magazine contacted her via telegram wanting her to take pictures. She had no idea how well it would work out, but decided to take a chance at this new magazine called Time magazine. She was not very happy and the publisher told her that they were working on a new magazine that was up her alley with industrial related photographs, and they decided to publish the magazine called Fortune. It did not work out very well, so she went out on her own.

After many failed attempts, she went back to Luce who had started up a magazine where it was mainly pictures, and Bourke-White was one of them. She had many cover pictures on this magazine. After many years of photography she found out she had Parkinson's Disease and had surgery twice and both times were successful, but she hurt herself and she was forced to stay in a hospital bed. She died not long after at the age of 67. She was great at what she did, especially since it was "no place for a woman" at that time.

Two Photos

This picture has the quality "near to far.
You look at it and see the sightseeing binoculars and you are like, "Oh, what is there for anyone to see?" Then your eyes goes to the back of the picture and see the buildings and what looks like boats. The skyline is very intriguing making it looks like it is about ready to storm. This picture takes you in from the front of it, all the way to the sky.

This photograph is well done because you dont know what you are looking at until you look at the details and see it is a reflection. The picture actually represents the "far to near" quality. It is like when you would draw a road in elementary school, and it would get smaller and smaller. That is what this picture is doing. It makes it seem like the things that are farther away are closer due to that quality.

Ernst Hass

The movement of this image is so captivating. You look at it, and you think you are looking at an actual waterfall.The color in this is a necessity because if it were in black and white, it would look like a blur of grays and blacks. The subtle blues turn into a mix of gray and white and it pulls your eye from the top left of the picture to the bottom right. The composition of it is so straight-forward something different, such as an angle change could have worked for it, but I give him an A for effort.


This one caught my eye right away because the shadow and the dark roof make a near-perfect triangle. The parts that are light look like they could have been exposed longer in order to make the "color" richer. Ir reminds me of a test strip from one of my earlier photo classes and it seems that the shadowed area was exposed for the right time, but the light area could have used ten more seconds. If that is what the photographer/developer wanted, they did a magnificent job. The photographer seemingly wants the man standing at the bottom of the picture to be small and not important to the things going on around him. Maybe he is not important in society. This picture would not work in black and white, the purpose of this picture is portrayed in the shadows and it could not be done in color.

Charles Moore

This image is very heart-breaking because someone in such a respectable position is caught acting in such a manner that is disgraceful. Today firefighters are so idolized and looked up to by children today, and when you look at this picture, you see horrid men hosing down African Americans for standing up for what they believe in. The pressure from the hose is beating down on them forcing to them to the ground. One fireman, according to the subtext of the picture, was disgusted and so am I. How could people be so heartless to do this to someone of just another skin color.
This composition of this picture is very creative. The picture would have been very different if they would have been looking directly at the fireman, or directly at the victims. The line the water makes draws your attention to the right of the photo. The subjects take up two thirds of the picture, and the rest is empty space. It is good emptiness, meaning that the space is not used to take away, but to contribute to the subjects.

Media Influence

It is very surprising that the media can show the people something and it sparks such a large flame that can start an uproar of rage, loathing, and many other strong emotions. In the war in Iraq, some insurgents only attack in order to catch the horrible act on their cell phones or high-resolution cameras. They do this for the purpose of gaining more people to fight and support the war. It can ignite feelings that seemingly only be felt when experiencing them first hand. In these cases they show the things happening first hand.

There was a drastic difference in emotion between the article and the video clip. The article was for us to preview and realize how they are getting their, for lack of a better word, "troops". They would show these on the internet, the television, and many other resources to get people involved. Some would donate, some would fight, and some would just watch for sadistic enjoyment.

When taken account, something that happens can be seen over the world in nearly an hour. For example when Saddam's hanging happened and someone used their camera on their phone to record it, then it was placed on the internet just a short time after. You can now view anything on the internet and the television is getting to the point where certain things have to be hidden from the adolescent's eyes.

With the videos, there was just a vague picture of American's lives being taken. It is difficult to realize that you are witnessing people being killed, when you do you feel upset that anyone would do this. I also felt confused as to why they would record these things, but the article clarified why they would. They are looking to recruit people, make them support the war, and, to us, make fun of the Americans and show how powerful they are.

With so much media influence in everyone's lives, things such as this can effect so many people. If these things can provoke people to go into war and kill. I do not understand why these sources would inspire people to kill others, but thier mindset seems so messed up, I don't think I will be able to understand.

9/11

This one has portrays many feelings in me because I know that many people lost their lives that day. Their families are hurting even today because of this. The ones who lost their lives did not know they were not going to come home and they may have done things they regret. Maybe even the loved ones of the person's whose life was lost have done something that was regrettable and they can not have the moment back to apologize to the person. The person might have continuous guilt in their hearts. It shows you should never do something you might regret.

The loss of a loved one is something that takes a long time to get over and the thousands of families that lost someone are hurt. The lighting of the candles in this cartoon represent the two towers that had the thousands of people in it that crumbled. For the family, it might be either to remember the thousands or just the lost one, but as a whole it shows the thousands of lives and families hurt by the attack.

Me!

My name is Candace Kinney and this is my first semester in college. I have lived in Warsaw my whole life and I can not wait to get out of here! I graduated from high school nearly 8 weeks ago and I am already trying to get my life started. I am still unsure as to what I want to do with my life, but as of right now, I am working with my parents and my boyfriend at our Internet cafe', The Detour. http://myspace.com/thedetourinternetcafe is our myspace