SARASOTA, FLA.-More than 150 photographs by famous photojournalist and chronicler of the Machine Age, Margaret Bourke-White are part of the exhibition,  Margaret Bourke-White: The Photography of Design, 1927 - 1936 at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Oct. 25, 2003 through Jan. 4, 2003.

As a young photojournalist, Bourke-White showed the world the beauty in the raw aesthetic of early American industries and factories. She later became famous for her Life magazine images.

The period of 1927 - 1936 was a time when she formed her aesthetic vision and forged new territory in the field of photojournalism. Before her career with Life, she dramatized the power of machines and skyscrapers through dynamic photos using close-ups, dramatic cross-lighting, and unusual perspectives. "Another striking feature of her photos from this time period is the repeated pattern in her compositions. Whether it is of people working in factories or of bottles on a conveyer belt, she creates rhythms that seem to harmonize people and machines," said Ringling Museum Assistant Curator Joanna Weber.

"The photographs themselves are not only important in terms of her technique, but they also captured a period of American history when the nation experienced significant industrial growth," Weber said. "Bourke-White was an ambitious entrepreneur who documented these rapid changes by going inside the factories and mills, and capturing the workers in action."

The general public has not seen many of the photographs in the exhibition and the accompanying catalogue since they were first published in the early to mid-1930s. "I chose a combination of familiar and less known works by Bourke-White because I was interested in understanding her photographic eye and getting a complete picture of her as an artist," said Organizing Curator Stephen Bennett Phillips, Curator of the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., who spent more than two years researching the subject. He added, "This is the first major exhibition of Bourke-White’s early works ever assembled."

The exhibition begins with Bourke-White’s earliest pictorial view of Cleveland’s Terminal Tower and ends with her well-known photographs for the cover and lead story for the inaugural issue of Life magazine in 1936.

Bourke-White’s fascination with the industrial world stemmed from her father who was an inventor and engineer in New York. She enrolled at Columbia University in 1921, where she took a photography class with the great photographer, Clarence H. White (no relation). White taught Arthur Wesley Dow’s theories of composition, which focused on modern principles of design.

Bourke-White soon realized she could make money off her photographs. After transferring several times, she eventually graduated from Cornell University, where she gained a reputation for her architectural images of campus.

In 1927 Bourke-White moved to Cleveland, a city that was experiencing massive industrial and economic growth. Bourke-White was one of the few woman photographers who

recognized the power of the industrial photograph. Soon her work was appearing in magazines and newspapers across the nation. In 1929, she was invited to become the "star photographer" for the new Luce publication, Fortune magazine.

In 1930 Bourke-White traveled to the Soviet Union to become the first foreign journalist to document that country’s rapid industrialization. Bourke-White’s images of the USSR showed human toil with heroic dignity. "She returned to the U.S. with a greater sympathy for the suffering of the American worker," Phillips said. "Over the next few years, Bourke-White became more eager to combine her skills in photography with a growing social conscience. A new partnership with Luce in 1936 provided just the outlet, when she became one of four photographers on the staff of Life."

Margaret Bourke-White: The Photography of Design, 1927 - 1936 is organized by The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. This exhibition is supported by the Phillips Contemporaries and Trellis Fund. It is accompanied by a catalogue written by Stephen Bennett Phillips.