Synopsis
Examines the personal life and photographic career of the woman who served as a photojournalist for the magazine "Life" during World War II and the Korean War.
School Library Journal
Gr 4-6-Margaret Bourke-White was a woman driven by the promise of adventure, fueled by the desire for perfection, and gifted with an extraordinary ability to capture images that made people look and linger. The author does an admirable job of conveying those qualities without losing sight of the person within the artist. Readers will enjoy reading about the photographer's childhood and her parents, whose strong work ethic, love of nature, and encouragement to face fears shaped her character. Most quotes are attributed within the sentence; a bibliography of the artist's own works and resources about her have complete citations. While Welch presents the drama of Bourke-White's assignments--snapping for Fortune in the middle of the Dust Bowl, climbing atop Russian bomb shelters during World War II air raids, and braving land mines to cover Korean guerrillas for Life--she does not gloss over the personal tradeoffs resulting from her career choices, including her battle with Parkinson's disease. Crisp black-and-white photographs capture the progression of both her vision and visage. Challenging vocabulary and concepts are explained parenthetically or in brief endnotes. Smaller libraries that own Emily Keller's fine Margaret Bourke-White (Lerner, 1996) may opt to pass on this title since much of the information overlaps. Larger collections will want to have both. A moving view of the woman and of the birth and development of photojournalism with which she was so intimately associated.-Wendy Lukehart, Dauphin County Library, Harrisburg, PA