Margaret Bourke-White

Why We Chose Margaret Bourke-White

The reason Candace M. Kinney and Benjamin 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.

These pictures represent the "before and after" that we read about in the book. The first picture shows the man leaving the house walking towards the camera. In the second picture we see the man walking away from the camera. This is showing the before shot and after.

These pictures also represent "small to big" and "big to small". They show the driveway starting off large and wide then as you follow it towards the house it gets narrower.

This Picture works in Black and White because The light shining through the boards makes the picture stand out. This picture would not work in color because the light would blend in together with everything else in the picture. If this picture were color the Boys would stand out more that the light.

My color image works best in color because the signs and the whole picture stands out. If this picture were to be in Black and White the image would just kind of blend together making this photograph useless.

I guess in a way both photographs could be used in both black and white and color but the best thing to do would be to leave them the way they are because that is what works best.

This picture speaks to me because it shows the power of a team sticking together. This man is saving a woman from the riot. The stand alone photography shows the power of friendship and not leaving friends behind. The fact that the man is holding the woman in the air like a superhero and all the people are running around but he is standing still with the woman make the photograph very well taken. It brings out the emotion in everyone because it makes you feel sorry for the woman and everyone.

"Baghdad Sniper"

In my opinion, I believe that the new visual communication has more of an affect on the people than that facts from an article do. In the article you get a lot of information but it does not show exactly how horrible the attacks really are. People now and days are getting more and more used to the technology and being able to see what it is they really want.

The article gives more information across without the graphic violence that is being seen in the videos. This would attract more of the older people, or people that don't want to see the graphic pictures. The paper does a good job of saying that after an attack, there is already video or pictures online and ready to view. This is true because the world would rather watch the attacks than read about it.

One of the video i watched was not very appealing. The American soldiers were being sniped down without warning. This clip was an awful site to see. In this video they showed an American soldiers dead body rotting in out in the open. They just kept showing the body. This was very disrespectful to me because they were showing off something that should not have happened.

Another clip that I watch there was a group of American soldiers being shot at and they had nowhere to go. This is definitely not fair fighting. Although fighting is not good, it should be done properly and not like this.

Seeing clips like this gives the world a better view at what is really going on. Although they could just read about it, I believe that the world would rather see the horror for themselves so they can see that is it real and true.

9/11 Cartoon

This is an image of Uncle Sam crying because of 9/11. His tears make the 11 in 9/11. This shows to me that the horrible day of September 11Th was not only something that affected the state of New York but affected the whole world.

Not only did New York cities heart break on 9/11 but so did the entire United States. People volunteered from all over the country to help out on that tragic day. This Picture helps represent that even though the whole world is grieving over this horrible event that we can stick together as a whole and help support the United States.

This image represents that even 100 years from now 9/11 will still be remembered. Its going to take a long time to forget the event that occurred on that September day. This 2Nd Cartoon is also showing that it has left a scar on the heart of the nation. That is why September 11Th is going to be so hard to forget.

About Ben Thompson

My name is Ben Thompson. I live in Winona Lake. My major is Visual communications. Visual Communications will allow me to create websites and design billboards and logo's. Some of my hobbies are working with computers, taking pictures and sometimes skateboarding. In my free time I am at a new business called the detour. The detour is an internet cafe and photography center here in Warsaw Indiana.