FOTOGRAFIS
collection reloaded

11 September – 29 October 2008
Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna
www.bankaustria-kunstforum.at

An Update of the History of Photography

Legendary American photographer Margaret Bourke-White (1904 - 1971) - one of the first female war correspondents, photographer of design, and photographic essayist, is collected by Fotografis. The collection "Fotografis" was founded by the Bank Austria (former Länderbank) in 1976. After more than 20 years one of Europe's most outstanding and earliest photographic collections is in exhibition again: the 270 old and new works can be seen as an update of the history of photography.

Video: Documentary showing film scenes and photographies of the time, from and about the American photographer Margaret Bourke-White (1904 - 1971). One of her most famous photographs was made 1946 of Mahatma Gandhi at his spinning wheel; hours later after she has taken her last picture from him, he was assassinated.

Margaret Bourke-White is known as one of the leading women in the photojournalist field of the 20th century. The New York (Bronx) born is entitled as the "Photographer of Design" for her early works. As she started as an industrial photographer in Cleveland, Ohio, for the Otis Steel Company in 1927, she developed her individual signature for capturing the industrial machines. She was the first Western photographer given permission to enter the Soviet Union.

In 1935 she was the first female photojournalist of the American magazine Life; during World War II. she was one of the first females who entered a combat zone and documented death camps.

Bourke-White has published several books what makes her probably the first American photo essayist. One of her most famous books is a documentation about the American South with the title "You Have Seen Their Faces", published 1937.

In an interview with the New York Post about the book, "... the Post's feature writer focuses attention on the dress coat Bourke-White wore during their interview. It is a "superior red coat," in the photographer's words, and was styled by Howard Greer, who is described in the breathless manner of a celebrity column as fashion designer to Hollywood stars like Marlene Dietrich and Katherine Hepburn. ..."
Source: findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2220/is_n2_v40/ai_20992278/pg_13?tag=artBody;col1

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fig.: Margaret Bourke-White Revival-Meeting (Southern Revival), 1937
Schwarz-Weiß-Fotografie 17,6 x 23,6 cm Sammlung FOTOGRAFIS der Bank Austria, Wien