Showing posts with label Margaret Bourke-White. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Margaret Bourke-White. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Forbidden Drinking...

During the Prohibition, that lasted between 1920-1933 in the US, and forbade any sale, production importation, and transportation of alcoholic beverages, the speakeasy became the place to socialize at. These speakeasies were bars that illegally sold booze to their customers behind locked doors. Some of these popular places were run by criminals, and even though the police would sometimes raid the bars and arrest both the owners and their customers, the speakeasies were so profitable they continued to flourish. Photographer Margaret Bourke-White were able to take some photos at a few of these notorious bars in 1933 - the year the Prohibition ban was lifted, and therefor meant the speakeasies could take the locks off their doors. I found her photos in LIFE Magazine's archives. And here they are! Illegal drinking...






























Monday, December 01, 2014

Behind The Scenes Of 1930s Burlesque

American photographer Margaret Bourke-White (June 14, 1904 - August 27, 1971) was the first foreign photographer permitted to document Soviet industry after the revolution, the first American female war photojournalist, and the first female photographer for LIFE Magazine. But in 1936 she took her camera into a completely different war zone - the dressing room of burlesque dancers  - and snapped a few interesting pictures of the so-called "Burlesque Strip-Steppers", back in the day when burlesque was still evolving. I love these photos...

















The stage is being prepared at the French Casino.











This photo is entitled Backstage In a Degas Setting the Ballerinas of the Ballet Russe Pause.


If you happen to be in London, you can go to the Daniel Blau gallery, where an exhibition in honor of Bourke-White takes place until December 20. More than 60 photos from her career are on display, including the ones above.



Hyper Smash