Skip Navigation

Untitled

Margaret Bourke-White

Photography

Margaret Bourke-White was for much of her career the quintessential photojournalist. A major contributor to Life magazine, starting with its inaugural edition in 1936, Bourke-White was the first of dozens of female photojournalists who appeared, and then disappeared, during the golden age of news magazines in the mid-twentieth century. Her precision and strong sense of design were formed while working as an industrial photographer, glamorizing the steel industry and urban architecture.

In 1930 Bourke-White was the first Western photographer allowed to take pictures in the Soviet Union. This perfectly composed, beautifully lit photograph shows infants at mealtime in a Soviet orphanage. Light plays on the almost identical heads of the sexually indeterminate three-year-olds, solemnly sharing milk and bread at a child-size table with a spotless white tablecloth.
MEDIUM Gelatin silver print
DATES ca. 1930-1931
DIMENSIONS image/sheet: 9 3/8 x 13 1/4 in. (23.8 x 33.7 cm)  (show scale)
MARKINGS Stamped on verso: artist's stamp
SIGNATURE Signed in pencil on lower right of mount: "Bourke-White"
COLLECTIONS Photography
ACCESSION NUMBER 79.299.1
CREDIT LINE Gift of Samuel Goldberg in memory of his parents, Sophie and Jacob Goldberg, and his brother, Hyman Goldberg
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Six children at a table.
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Margaret Bourke-White (American, 1904-1971). Untitled, ca. 1930-1931. Gelatin silver print, image/sheet: 9 3/8 x 13 1/4 in. (23.8 x 33.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Samuel Goldberg in memory of his parents, Sophie and Jacob Goldberg, and his brother, Hyman Goldberg, 79.299.1. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 79.299.1_SL1.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 79.299.1_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT © artist or artist's estate
Copyright for this work may be controlled by the artist, the artist's estate, or other rights holders. A more detailed analysis of its rights history may, however, place it in the public domain. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.