Margaret Bourke-White Analysis

Photography isn’t just being able to take a pretty picture. There are a lot of factors to think about when it comes to taking a picture. The most important thing to me when it comes to photography is when a picture tells a story. One photographer that I think tells amazing stories through her photographs is Margaret Bourke-White. Margaret was a photographer in the 1920’s. When Margaret was in college she did not dream about being a photographer she dreamed about being a Herpetologist. She once stated, “I pictured myself as a scientist, going to the jungle, bringing back specimens for natural history museums and doing all the things that women never could do.” (Oden, “Margaret Bourke-White”). Photography finally caught Margaret’s attention when she transferred to Cornell University, she was having a hard time finding a job so she decide to take pictures of the campus …show more content…
This photo was actually not taken during the Great Depression. This photo was actually taken during the 1937 Ohio River flood. The picture is of black people in a line holding some of their belongings. Ironically the groups of black people are standing in front of a build board. Placed on the build bored is a picture of a white family with their dog driving in a car. The build bored reads World’s Highest Standard of Living, threes no way like the American way. The white family that is on the build bored all have happy smiling faces, while the group in front of the build bored have sadness across their face’s. This picture feels more like of a culture shock for me. It clearly shows the different life that the race black had to live from the white race. The build bored makes it seem that being white is the only way to be “American” but it’s clearly not like that. This photo shows you of how far this world have come and I think that’s why this photo is still a huge historical photo in today’s