One of the most notable photojournalists, Margaret Bourke-White (1904–1971) started her career in 1927. Beginning with her remarkable photographs of Cleveland’s steel mills, she made her reputation by writing articles and publishing her work in America’s leading print publications, including the New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, Ladies Home Journal, and Reader’s Digest. Between 1930 and 1955 she worked for Fortune magazine, with nearly fifty of her images being reproduced. In 1936, Henry Luce hired her as one of the first four photographers for Life and her image of the Fort Peck Dam appeared on the magazine’s first cover. She remains best-known for her many photo-essays published in Life, producing more than 120 articles for them over two decades.
Bourke-White traveled throughout the world on assignment, and the print in the Solari Foundation Collection is the result of two trips she made to Russia. She made her first images there in 1930, when she had the distinction of being the first foreign correspondent permitted to take photographs of industrial development, witnessing the Russian’s Five Year Plan as it unfolded. In the 1931 book she published on her experiences, Eyes on Russia, she gave a brief description of the state of the country: “Little food, no shoes, terrible inefficiency, steady progress, great hope.”1 She appreciated the tenacity of the Russian people, and she was hopeful of a bright future for the then bleak nation. The people she met delighted her, and the photographer admired their dramatic and expressive nature.
At one stop on her trip, she presented a lecture on photography. Her interpreter, Lida Ivanovna, fielded questions from the audience. Bourke-White later asked what they had wanted to know. To those curious about her age, how she spent her evenings, and if she had admirers, Ivanovna had replied: “Miss Bourke-White loves nothing but her camera.”2
She returned again to Russia in 1941, just at the start of World War II. Arriving as tensions mounted, and sensing that something significant was about to happen, she determined to document any events she might witness. When the Germans bombed the outskirts of Moscow on June 22, 1941, Bourke-White was the only American photographer in the city; her images were published in Life and her comments broadcast on the radio. Photographing the nighttime air raids, she recorded the skies dramatically lit with streaks of light from the artillery bombardments that pounded the city. She also photographed German prisoners of war, poster production, women training to become nurses and firefighters, and Stalin in the Kremlin, as well as churches throughout the city.
The Soviet Constitution permitted both antireligious propaganda and freedom of religious worship. A wide variety of religious sects were active in Russia, and Bourke-White observed: “When I heard that the priests of Moscow were praying for victory I decided the time had come to go to church.”3 She devoted an entire chapter of her book, Shooting the Russian War (1942), to exploring the subject of religion in Russia, describing the scenes she
witnessed, including women kissing an icon’s hand and feet, parishioners listening to a sermon, and mothers lining up with their babies to be baptized. Bourke-White recorded her visit to the head of the New Orthodox Church’s house, congregations surrounding the pulpit, and clergymen clad in ornate robes and wearing elaborate pendants.
In her caption for Russian Orthodox Worshippers, her print in the Solari Foundation Collection, Bourke-White observed:
The parishioners cross themselves constantly and automatically from the moment they enter the church. After each prayer uttered from the altar the people break in with a “Gospodi pomilui,” God have mercy. The congregation is made up largely of women, usually old. Few young people go to church. The churches are licensed by the government and are self-supporting. Much of the work of the church is done by volunteer committees.4
Her photograph references both a notable generational shift regarding religious practice, as well as the separation of the church and state. Attendance determined which parishes would survive, and as turnout declined, churches were closed. Not only were Russian children not taught religion in school, but they were also taken on field trips to the Antireligious Museum in Moscow. The result was that fewer youth attended church, and older parishioners comprised the majority of church attendees both in the city and in the provinces.
Much had changed in the decade since she had first visited Russia. Some conditions had improved, but there were still shortages and wartime rationing. As a foreigner, the people she met were wary at first, but were otherwise extremely helpful, making an extra effort to present Russia in a favorable light. She observed: “I had made new friends among brave people and had watched them defending their country, courageously, with that fervor and self-forgetfulness which people show only when they believe in what they are working and fighting for.5
As a busy photojournalist, Bourke-White’s life both before and after her trips to Russia was filled with international travel. Famed for her tenacity, bravery, and perseverance, she took pride in being able to work no matter what conditions she found onsite. She was able to photograph some of the most important historical events of the twentieth century: the Dust Bowl of the American Depression, the liberation of Nazi concentration camps, and Gandhi’s work in India.
Although Bourke-White bravely endured many difficulties throughout her career, her greatest challenge came at the end of her life. In 1953, she began experiencing the first symptoms of what would be diagnosed as Parkinson’s disease. While she continued to work, doing exercises in an attempt to slow its progression, Parkinson’s ultimately ended her career. Her auto-biography, Portrait of Myself, was published in 1963, and she retired from Life in 1969, two years before her death in 1971. Her reputation endures as a photographer driven to record history as it unfolded before her eyes.
Monica Garcia
Margaret Bourke-White, Russian Orthodox Worshippers, 1941, gelatin silver print, 26.3 x 33.8 cm, SOLARI 94.037.001L