thank you to the kind souls who voted for my photograph. I am truly honoured and humbled.
When Ann @olivetreeann wrote about the daunting task of choosing an artist for the artist challenge, she wasn't kidding. This challenge alone had covered 35 artists (i counted 37 challenges - Norman Rockwell and Rene Magritte were covered twice each) and there are thousands more to choose from. I considered choosing one of the Canadian artists for this challenge, but in the end I opted for a woman photographer whose work I have seen in old magazines as a young girl.
Margaret Bourke-White (June 14, 1904 – August 27, 1971) was an American photographer and documentary photographer. From an early age, Margaret showed her interest in her father's photography and often helped him develop his photos in their bathtub. At 8, "her father took her inside a foundry to watch the manufacture of printing presses. While in the foundry, she saw some molten iron poured. This event filled Margaret with joy, and this memory would be burned in her mind for years to come."
Ms. Bourke-White is best known as the first foreign photographer permitted to take pictures of Soviet Industry, the first female war correspondent (and the first female permitted to work in combat zones during WW2) and the first female photographer for Henry Luce's Life magazine, where her photograph appeared on its first cover. One of her more famous photographs, taken in 1946, was of Ghandi beside his spinning wheel, and which was taken just hours before his assassination.
Another famous photograph, that of black drought victims standing in front of a sign which declared, "World's Highest Standard of Living", showing a white family, appeared in Life magazine in 1937.
One of the more remarkable story about Ms. Bourke-White was during the start of the Great Depression, she was photographing a bank and was annoyed to find the bank's officers or directors meeting so late at night that it hampered her set up at the bank's lobby. She couldn't wait for them to finish and leave and she had no qualms displaying her annoyance. In her autobiography "Portrait of Myself", she remarked: There I was turning my lens the other way while history was pushing its face into my camera.
Here are a few links on Margaret Bourke-White and her work:
The challenge is to take a photograph recreating one of Ms. Bourke-White's photographs, or to photograph something in the style that is reminiscent of her work, or to take a concept of one of her photographs and make it your own.
The challenge starts now and ends on Sunday, September 30, 2012 at midnight EST; entries must be taken between these dates.
Please tag your entries: ac-white
I look forward to seeing your photographs for this challenge.
Wow Vikki, looks like a fun challenge. At first I saw all those areal shots and thought oh I don't think I can do anything like those but after reviewing her work which included a LOT of different subjects I got several ideas. I'm in this one! Thank you for hosting this challenge!
@sticksandstones - hahaha! she has a photo of a dusty bathroom sink. you're good finding those things! :-) maybe another toilet on the side of the road. hahaha!
she was a powerful photographer and influence and still can't figure out how she had such access...some of the photos of concentration camps and Korean war...amazing...how did SHE make it out alive.
@shamrockinmom - to have such success, i would suppose that she had a tenacious personality and charm, mix in a lot of skills, talent and some luck for good measure. to be recognized during that time is a phenomenon itself. thank you. hope to see an entry from you.
@catsmeowb - :-) too bad i can't choose my own post!
@myhrhelper - thanks, kathy. much appreciated. i'm actually a follower of the Artist Challenge but for some reason it has not been updated. i have no idea who looks after it.
Finally took some time to look at her shots today (although I was familiar with them) and wow- this is a challenge to imitate an icon of photography. But I know the shot I will take and I can only take it on Sunday so it'll be a last minute entry- not to mention that I must also join it to the ONS2 challenge! Thankfully the ONS shot is a designated to be sooc that day and b/w, Bourke-White's usual genre suits it just fine! phew! Talk about overbooking yourself on challenges! Just wanted to give you the heads up "challenge buddy" in case you were wondering if I'd participate!
@olivetreeann - i was just about to send the artist challenge police over to extort an entry from you! :-) i might even extend it another two days to get more participation. thank you, my friend. looking forward to your post!
Ok, here is one of my entries for the Artist Challenge.
Please Note - It was photographed on September 27th, 2012 (you can verify this by the statistics) but since I don't have an Ace account I used an old date.
This seemed similar to the type of photographs I noticed from Margaret. I don't have an oil refinery anywhere close to my house but this seemed to be a reasonable substitute - what do you think?
I was originally planning to photograph the new paddlewheel boat, Queen of the Mississippi, when she docked in Madison, IN. Yesterday I found out that because of the traffic backups caused by the low water levels she was by-passing Madison and going straight to Cincinnati. Oh well. So I made due with this old wagon wheel.
Tweets ahoy!
Join the Group
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tagging those who had participated and/or shown interest in the previous artist challenges.
@paulaag @peterdegraaff @michellegaynor - thank you, so glad you approve.
Here is the link to the Artist Challenge and the followers.
@myhrhelper - thanks, kathy. much appreciated. i'm actually a follower of the Artist Challenge but for some reason it has not been updated. i have no idea who looks after it.
Please Note - It was photographed on September 27th, 2012 (you can verify this by the statistics) but since I don't have an Ace account I used an old date.
This seemed similar to the type of photographs I noticed from Margaret. I don't have an oil refinery anywhere close to my house but this seemed to be a reasonable substitute - what do you think?