This essay is about the beginning of Life magazine, and one of the four photographers documenting
stories. Bourke-White was a woman who traveled to document the New Deal, which
was an Earth dam. When she returned people expected photographs of
construction, but instead there was a photo essay of the American frontier
life. It starts off with a story of success and then mentions her struggles of competition
when the TV came out and being able to get and keep the right spot for a
photograph. What I found interesting was the part about her traveling to Jersey
City to photograph the Mayor. I admire the fact that she had the courage to
sneak out and document the “skeletons” that the Mayor was hiding from the town.
He was out for big appearances and always looking good, but in reality there
was issues like child labor and poor quality of life that needed to be address
and could not because of the Mayors, “I am the law” mentality. Since he had a
powerful law enforcement locals could not reveal the horrors that were occurring,
but secretly helped Bourke-White in exposing them. It was disappointing to hear
that they had destroyed her film at the end of the essay, but it was comforting
to know that she did not take big risks when it came to exposing these secrets,
and sent away what she could as soon as she could. I admire this piece a lot because
of her strength to always keep fighting for the truth of American, and not
supporting the cover-ups.
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