Quotes by
Margaret Bourke-White

A kind of golden hour one remembers for a life time... Everything was touched with magic.

[Life wanted] faces that would express what we wanted to tell. Not just the unusual or striking face, but the face that would speak out the message from the printed page. I am always looking for some typical person or face that will tie the picture essay together in a human way.

They [her subjects] believed I would be trying to get the truth of the question, and they trusted me.

We are in a privileged and sometimes happy position. We see a great deal of the world. Our obligation is to pass it on to others.

As photographers, we live through things so swiftly. All our experience and training is focused toward snatching off the highlights...That all significant perfect moment, so essential to capture, is often highly perishable. There may be little opportunity to probe deeper.

The camera is a remarkable instrument. Saturate yourself with your subject, and the camera will all but take you by the hand and point the way.

If anyone gets in my way when I’m making a picture, I become irrational. I’m never sure what I am going to do, or sometimes even aware of what I do—only that I want that picture.

The world was waiting to be full of discovery made...(as a photographer) I could share the things I saw and learned....you would react to something all others might walk by.

We see a great deal of the world. Our obligation is to pass it on to others.

Nothing attracts me like a closed door. I cannot let my camera rest until I have pried it open.

The sights I have just seen [at Buchenwald] are so unbelievable that I don’t think I’ll believe them myself until I’ve seen the photographs...

It seems to me that while it is very important to get a striking picture of a line of smoke stacks or a row of dynamos, it is becoming more and more important to reflect that life that goes on behind these photographs.

In this experience of mine, there was one continuing marvel: the precision timing running through it all... by some special graciousness of fate I am deposited—as all good photographers like to be—in the right place at the right time.

The element of discovery is very important. I don't repeat myself well. I want and need that stimulus of walking forward from one new world to another. There is something demoralizing about going back to a place to retake pictures. You can no longer see your subjects in a fresh eye; you keep comparing them with the pictures you hold in your memory. [The] world was full of discoveries waiting to be made...(as a photographer) I could share the things I saw and learned...you would react to something all others might walk by.

Saturate yourself with your subject and the camera will all but take you by the hand.

The very secret of life for me...was to maintain in the midst of rushing events an inner tranquillity. I had picked a life that dealt with excitement, tragedy, mass calamities, human triumphs and suffering. To throw my whole self into recording and attempting to understand these things, I needed an inner serenity as a kind of balance.

If you want to photograph a man spinning, give some thought to why he spins. Understanding for a photographer is as important as the equipment he uses.

I have always thought that if I could turn back the pages of history and photograph one man, my choice would be Moses.

By some special graciousness of fate I am deposited -- as all good photographers like to be -- in the right place at the right time. Go into it [photography] as young as possible. Bring all the asset you have and play to win.

If anybody gets in my way when I’m making a picture, I become irrational. I’m never sure what I‘m going to do--only that I want that picture.

Utter truth is essential and that is what stirs me when I look through the camera.

Any photographer who tries to portray human beings in a penetrating way must put more heart and mind into his preparation than will ever show in any photograph.

Photography is a very subtle thing. You must let the camera take you by the hand, as it were, and lead you into your subject.

Usually I object when someone makes overmuch of men’s work versus women’s work, for I think it is the excellence of the results which counts.

Of course, I am at the very core a photographer. It is my trade—and my deep joy.

Sometimes I come away from what I am photographing sick at heart, with the faces of people in pain etched as sharply in my mind as on my negatives. But I go back because I feel it is my place to make such pictures. Utter truth is essential, and that is what stirs me when I look through the camera.