Margaret Bourke-White - Newsprint : A Book of Pictures Illustrating the Operations in the Manufacture of Paper on which to - 1939

Best known for her 1931 book, Eyes on Russia as well as her 1937 book, You Have Seen Their Faces (included in Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook, Vol 1) Farm Security Administration photographer Margaret Bourke White was widely renowned for her corporate photography. Unlike Coffee Through the Camera's Lens, (see Martin Parr and Gerry Badger, The Photobook Vol 2, page 184) which was advertising disguised as education, this large format industrial photobook is an unashamed celebration of the Canadian International Paper Company's operations.

As Bart Sorgedrager notes, "Newsprint reflects Bourke-White's development as a photographer. She combines photographs that recall her early days in the late 1920s, when she worked for Fortune magazine and glorified technology: 'factories in her pictures were invested with the drama of light, of monumental power, of startling views: industry as a theatre'. She alternates these photographs with ones that recall the years 1936 and 1937 when she started working with writer Erskine Caldwell on the book You Have Seen Their Faces and became much more interested in the ups and downs within the lives of individuals." Sorgedrager, p.272

As well as the images of both industry and workers, the book also includes two striking photomontages, portraying the relentless speed and power of the industrial processing that turns wood pulp into paper and the non-stop whirl and insatiable demands of the newspaper industry, printing day and night so that the newsboys can have the papers ready for sale in the morning rush hour.

This stunning example of industrial photography at its best is included in Bart Sorgedrager, The Factory Photobook, pages 272-275

Condition:
Very good first edition. Wear to top and bottom of spine. Bump to top corner that affects a small are of some pages. Small tears to front and rear endpapers. Binding tight and interior clean. Please examine listing photos carefully.