Famous Photographer #18: Margaret Bourke White

Margaret Bourke White got a degree in Herpetology from Cornell University. Her photography career started at Cornell when she sold pictures to students. After graduation she moved to Cleveland and opened a studio. Henry Luce offered a staff photographer position to Margaret Bourke for Fortune magazine. Her first published work was in 1931 and it was a book called Eye on Russia. She was assigned to take pictures of the drought and it opened her eyes to human suffering. Later Bourke started working at Life magazine. She also photographed wars and these pictures revealed horrors of the world. She was a member of the American Artists' Congress. She supported the state-funding of the arts and was against discrimination against African American artists. Bourke became a war correspondent for Life magazine during World War II. This was huge because she was the first female war correspondent. She was the first female permitted to work in combat zones and permitted to take pictures of the Soviet Union.