Margaret Bourke-White (American, 1904-1971)
Bourke-White was a photojournalist who captured some of the first images of German concentrations camps after WWII, the Soviets under their first five-year plan, and the first cover photograph for LIFE magazine (of the construction of Fort Peck Dam). Other events she covered include the partition of India and Pakistan, the impact of the Great Depression, and the Korean War.
Bourke-White entered Columbia University in 1921 to study herpetology, but took a photography course that left a lasting impression. In 1927 she graduated from Cornell University with a degree in biology. She started as an architectural and commercial photographer before receiving a job with Fortune. Bourke-White would go on to photograph Stalin in Russia in the 1930s, was the first female wartime correspondent during WWII, and interviewed Mohandas K. Gandhi the day of his assassination.
