A major retrospective on Margaret Bourke-White at Trastevere, with over 100 images from the Life archive

Until February 27, 2022, the Museo di Roma in Trastevere is hosting the exhibition Prima, donna. Margaret Bourke-White dedicated to one of the most representative exponents ofphotojournalism. Curated by Alessandra Mauro, the retrospective presents more than 100 images documenting the American photographer’s countercultural vision and life.

The images come from the Life archive in New York and are divided into eleven themes that the visitor traces chronologically in the exhibition rooms. It starts with the photographer’s early industrial work and continues with her social work during the Great Depression years in the U.S. South. The third section is devoted to her long collaboration with the famous American magazine Life; this is followed by the period in which she documented the stages of the five-year plan in the Soviet Union, the war years as a correspondent, and the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp. The tour continues with a documentation of South Africa during Apartheid, the color work devoted to segregationism in the U.S. South. The last sections present the most significant aerial images made by the photographer during her lifetime and a series of images documenting her last struggle, that against Parkinson’s disease.

A pioneer of information and image, Margaret Bourke-White explored every aspect of photography: from early images devoted to the world of industry and corporate projects to major reportages for major newspapers such as Fortune and Life; from visual chronicles of World War II to the famous portraits of first Stalin and then Gandhi (whom she met during the reportage on the birth of the new India and portrayed shortly before his death); from Apartheid South Africa to the America of racial conflicts to aerial visions of the American continent.

For info: museodiromaintrastevere.it

Hours: Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Image: Margaret Bourke-White at work atop the Chrysler skyscraper, New York City, 1934 © Oscar Graubner Courtesy Estate of Margaret Bourke White

A major retrospective on Margaret Bourke-White at Trastevere, with over 100 images from the Life archive

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