Margaret Bourke-White
(American, 1904–1971)
[The People’s Commissar of Defense, Joseph Stalin]
Object Details
Artist
Margaret Bourke-White
Date
1941 (negative), ca. 1965 (print)
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image: 19 1/4 × 15 3/8 inches (48.9 × 39 cm)
Mount (Matted): 27 15/16 × 22 1/16 inches (71 × 56 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of the artist, Class of 1927, and LIFE Magazine
Object
Number
65.634
Margaret Bourke-White was best known for her photographs published in LIFE and Fortune, and is credi(…)
Margaret Bourke-White was best known for her photographs published in LIFE and Fortune, and is credited as the first American female war photojournalist. Bourke-White was the only photographer in Moscow during the German raid on the Kremlin.The context of this image is notable since the government controlled all Soviet media during this time, allowing Stalin to build his cult of personality. In this photograph, Bourke-White captures Stalin monumentally posed to emanate a sense of power, seen from below and dramatically lit to evoke control and authority. (“15 Minutes: Exposing Dimensions of Fame,” curated by undergraduate members of Cornell’s History of Art Major’s Society and presented at the Johnson Museum April 16 – July 24, 2016)
