[FIRST AMERICAN WOMAN WAR PHOTO-JOURNALIST] - Meet Some of the Soviet People
by BOURKE-WHITE, Margaret
- Used
- first
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
London, United Kingdom
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
A fine series of beautiful portraits and scenes taken by one of the most significant female photographers of her time: first edition of this large-format album published to raise funds for the war relief.
The work opens with an introduction that stands in contrast to the often-hostile messages propagated against the Soviet Union by the West around World War Two: "The USSR often has been called the "family of nations", because more than 150 nationalities live there in harmony. This album will serve as an introduction to a few of these peoples – our Soviet allies".
It was published by the Russian War Relief, which was the largest American agency for foreign war relief established in July 1941, one month after Germany's attack on Russia. For this publication, they worked with the American photographer Margaret Bourke-White (1904–71), who is best known as the first foreign photographer permitted to take pictures of the Soviet five-year plan and the first American female war photojournalist.
In the early 1930s, Bourke-White travelled to the Soviet Union three times, taking hundreds of photographs of people and the industrial revolution rolled out by Stalin. Later she wrote: "Nothing invites me so much as a closed door. I cannot let my camera rest until I have opened that door".
She went back to the Soviet Union again in the spring of 1941 and spent six weeks taking pictures of the Soviet people preparing for war.
Bourke-White's album shows the Soviet people under a rather bright light, echoing, in its subject-matter as well as its technique, some of the best Soviet propaganda photography. Bourke-White however does also introduce some nuances, such as a heavily industrialised background. The emphasis is given to the variety of the Soviet people, with an atmospheric photograph of an orthodox priest (while the Church wasn't especially in favour under Stalin's regime) and some great frames of Central Asian people.
Provenance
Philadelphia Library, USA (Discrete library stamps to margin of the first plate, library sticker to first fly-leaf, and institutional bookplate on pastedown "Gift of the American Society for Russian Relief").
Description
Folio. With 12 photographic plates, 2 of the photographs crediting Bourke-White in the margin.
Binding
Publisher's blue printed wrappers bound in later dark blue buckram.
Condition
Cloth dusty, otherwise plates bright and clean.
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Details
- Bookseller
- PY Rare Books (GB)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 266
- Title
- [FIRST AMERICAN WOMAN WAR PHOTO-JOURNALIST] - Meet Some of the Soviet People
- Author
- BOURKE-WHITE, Margaret
- Illustrator
- Margaret BOURKE-WHITE
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Publisher
- Russian War Relief, Inc., New York, [1941?]
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
- Keywords
- Photography, USSR, Russia, Women
- Bookseller catalogs
- Travels: Russia, Siberia, Far East and Pacific;
Terms of Sale
PY Rare Books
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Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Rolled
- rolled spine or spine rolled. Damage to a book created by pressure to the spine making it fold or crease in the cover. Damage...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Bookplate
- Highly sought after by some collectors, a book plate is an inscribed or decorative device that identifies the owner, or former...
- Buckram
- A plain weave fabric normally made from cotton or linen which is stiffened with starch or other chemicals to cover the book...
- Plate
- Full page illustration or photograph. Plates are printed separately from the text of the book, and bound in at production. I.e.,...
- Wrappers
- The paper covering on the outside of a paperback. Also see the entry for pictorial wraps, color illustrated coverings for...
- Fly-Leaf
- ...