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[Blast furnace under construction in the Ural Mountains as part of the first Five Year plan, 1931. Magneto-Gorsk, U.S.S.R.]
[Blast furnace under construction in the Ural Mountains as part of the first Five Year plan, 1931. Magneto-Gorsk, U.S.S.R.]

[Blast furnace under construction in the Ural Mountains as part of the first Five Year plan, 1931. Magneto-Gorsk, U.S.S.R.]

Artist (American, 1904–1971)
Date1931 (negative), ca. 1965 (print)
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 19 × 14 9/16 inches (48.3 × 37 cm);
Mount (Matted): 27 15/16 × 22 1/16 inches (71 × 56 cm)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineGift of the artist, Class of 1927, and LIFE Magazine
Terms
  • Photographs
  • Gelatin silver prints
Object number65.575
Label CopyIn the summer of 1931, the Soviet government invited Bourke-White back to the country. Much of her time was spent in the city of Magnitogorsk photographing the massive industrial complex being built there. While pictures like this captured the power and excitement of construction, Bourke-White increasingly began to photograph the men behind the machines: “Not only is the dynamo under construction beautiful, but the men who build that dynamo have a certain beauty—their faces have an artistic value because of the virility and importance of the work they do.” ("Margaret Bourke-White: From Cornell Student to Visionary Photojournalist," curated by Stephanie Wiles and presented at the Johnson Museum January 24 - June 7, 2015)
Collections
[Sierra Madre mountains, California]
Margaret Bourke-White
1935 (negative), ca. 1965 (print)
Margaret Bourke-White
1935 (negative); printed later
For the Iron Mine Foundations, Magnet Mountain, from Photographs of U.S.S.R.
Margaret Bourke-White
1931-32 (negative); 1934 (print)
[Comrade Mikhail, Siberian Bricklayer, U.S.S.R.]
Margaret Bourke-White
1931 (negative), ca. 1965 (print)
Blast furnaces
Fred G. Korth
ca. 1938
[First sign of famine, peasants begging at the roadside]
Margaret Bourke-White
1946-48 (negative); ca. 1965 (print)