Object Details
Artist
Margaret Bourke-White
Date
1941 (negative), ca. 1965 (print)
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image: 15 1/4 × 19 5/16 inches (38.7 × 49 cm)
Mount (matted): 22 1/16 × 27 15/16 inches (56 × 71 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of the artist, Class of 1927, and LIFE Magazine
Object
Number
65.641
As the Germans advanced on Moscow, Bourke-White faced a Soviet warning that anyone caught with a cam(…)
As the Germans advanced on Moscow, Bourke-White faced a Soviet warning that anyone caught with a camera would be shot, along with a U.S. government advisory asking Americans to leave the city. Determined nevertheless to cover the conflict, she eventually obtained permission from the Soviets to take preapproved pictures. She and Erskine Caldwell, her husband, both ignored American warnings to evacuate. This photograph was taken from the roof of the American embassy in Moscow as the first bombs fell. With long exposures, Bourke-White managed to capture exploding shells with the spires of the Kremlin illuminated. This picture ran as part of LIFE’s lead story in September 1941—the first images Americans saw of the Moscow bombing. (“Margaret Bourke-White: From Cornell Student to Visionary Photojournalist,” curated by Stephanie Wiles and presented at the Johnson Museum January 24 – June 7, 2015)
