OKLAHOMA CITY, OK.- Margaret Bourke-White: The Photography of Design, 1927-1936 is exhibited at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art through June 12, 2005. Organized by The Phillips Collection, Washington D.C., this exhibition explores Bourke-White's early development and her emergence as one of the 20th century's best-known photographers. This first major exhibition devoted to the critical early years of Bourke-White's career is comprised of approximately 140 photographs. Many of the photographs have not been seen by the general public since they were first published in the early to mid-1930s, while others have never been reproduced. Beginning with her earliest pictorialist view of Cleveland's Terminal Tower in 1927 and culminating with her well-known 1936 photographs for the cover and lead story of Life magazine's first issue, the exhibition will explore the formative years in Bourke-White's career when she developed her aesthetic vision and forged new territory in the field of photojournalism.

Trained in modernist compositional techniques, Bourke-White photographed with an artist's eye, discovering beauty in the raw aesthetic of American industry and its factories. "Bourke-White was herself quintessentially modern. Ambitious, glamorous, brave, and entrepreneurial, she overcame daunting obstacles, both social and technical, to produce her first dramatic images inside the Otis Steel Mill in Cleveland at a time when women simply did not go inside steel mills," explained Stephen Bennett Phillips, curator at The Phillips Collection and organizer of the exhibition. Bourke-White romanticized the power of machines through close-ups, dramatic cross-lighting, and unusual perspectives, presenting industrial environments as artful compositions. These images revealed her grasp of modern design and aesthetics, and caught the eye of corporate executives and magazine publishers, ultimately landing her the position of Life magazine's first cover photographer.