PhotoTalk 2020/06

Let’s talk about a famous female photographer, but not necessarily about her famous photo.

Margaret Bourke-White is known for her famous photograph of Ghandi and the Spinning Wheel; it is a notable photo for several reasons, among which are the fact that its a photo of Mahatma Ghandi, she was the last person to do his portraits before his assassination (and interview him, a story in itself), it captured Ghandi as never before, the simple man at his then infamous charkha, she was the first woman to break into the photojournalism field, her photo was the cover of the very first TIME magazine, and the list of her accomplishments goes on.

The amazing thing to me is that she became famous for doing something she originally didn’t want to do, photograph people, especially those in politics. She started out shooting waterfalls to make ends meet, then into a bit of architecture, until she got to shoot subjects she was passionate about, machinery, things in industrial America (and the wider world), then into photojournalism, the war, etc.

I could go on, but you should check our her story yourselves, as well as photos from those earlier periods.

So let’s talk, got opinions? got questions, let’s chat!

Original post to the Guyana Photographers’ Facebook group was done on April 3rd, 2020. Original comments and discussion can be seen on that post.