The George Washington Bridge
Margaret Bourke-White
(American, 1904–1971)
1933
Medium/TechniquePhotograph, matte gelatin silver print with black ink borders
DimensionsImage: 34.0 x 22.2 cm (13 3/8 x 8 3/4 in.)
Sheet: 34.3 x 22.5 cm (13 1/2 x 8 7/8 in.)
Sheet: 34.3 x 22.5 cm (13 1/2 x 8 7/8 in.)
Credit LineCharles Amos Cummings Fund
Accession number1988.2
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Margaret Bourke-White established her career with the photographic recording of the American Machine Age. The images she made in the late 1920s and early 1930s for corporate reports and for Fortune and Life magazines are irrefutable symbols of modern industrialization. By tilting the front and back ends of a large-format camera, Bourke-White could align elements of her composition with the edges of the negative, as she did in this image of New York's George Washington Bridge. She also placed the camera at a low vantage point to better convey the majesty of the structure, which was completed in 1931 and at that time was the largest suspension bridge in the world. Bourke-White's photograph was published in Fortune in September 1933.
InscriptionsStamp, verso, top center, in black ink: "A/MARGARET BOURKE-WHITE/PHOTOGRAPH"ProvenanceWilliam L. Schaeffer, Chester, CT; purchased January 1988.
Copyright© Estate of Margaret Bourke-White/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Margaret Bourke-White
1936