Portrait of Myself

by Margaret Bourke-White

The story of a renowned woman photographer, her travels, and her triumph over a crippling disease

Genres: Photography, Biography, Memoir, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, History, Art

383 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Margaret Bourke-White was an American photographer and documentary photographer. She is best known as the first foreign photographer permitted to take pictures of Soviet Industry, the first female war correspondent (and the first female permitted to work in combat zones) and the first female photographer for Henry Luce's Life magazine, where her photograph appeared on the first cover.

Reviews

[Csenge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never thought I'd be interested in industrial photography, but the way MBW wrote about her work and her adventures, I was getting as enthusiastic as she was. What an incredible, remarkable lady, always in the middle of history. I especially loved her dedication to her profession, and the attention to detail that made her great. And she is also a very entertaining writer. I loved this book.

[Talya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Margaret bourke- white is a personal hero who inspired me to become a photojournalist - this read was inspiring! She has an excellent flow to her writing that was easy to get through and yet managed to convey some of the complex situations she experienced in her lifetime. As an extremely visual person, I only wish there had been more of the iconic pictures she describes in the book. Anyone with an interest in photography and especially photojournalism and documentary photography should definitely read this book.

[Harriett Milnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written autobiography of an industrial photographer who worked for Life magazine at the beginning. Ms. Bourke-White also took photographs during WWII and the Korean War. She traveled the world. This book was also interesting for its portrayal of 1930s New York. It ends with her struggle with Parkinson's.

[Danny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where do I even begin! This has been my favorite photojournalist memoir to date (as of Nov. 1, 2025!). Margaret Bourke-White is an incredible woman of many firsts. During World War II she was the first female war correspondent to be accredited to cover combat as well as being the first woman to fly on bombing missions and the first to wear the female U.S. war correspondent's uniform. She was the first western photographer to be permitted to photograph in the Soviet Union during Stalin’s Five Year Plan and was also the only western photographer present in Moscow when Nazi Germany started its first bombing raid on Russia. When the Dachau concentration camp was liberated by Patton’s Third Army she took photos of survivors. She details all of these events above with great enthusiasm making it a pleasure to read and honestly shocking as to what she was able to bear witness to, it does not even seem real. Due to this unprecedented access it also brought the unwanted attention of Edgar J. Hoover in the 1950s at a time when the Red Scare permeated many aspects of peoples lives in America. This side of her life is of course not detailed in her memoir but also should not be forgotten. A journal article in the Journal of American Studies published in 1985 by Robert E. Snyder reveals a darker truth to the reality of her life. The Federal Investigations Bureau monitored her life for several years including through her personal mail, application for passports, border customs entry and exits as well as searching her luggage, and cultivating informants among her friends, colleagues, and neighbors. In 1939 Hoover started an initiative to compile a list of dangerous individuals to be interned in the event of a national emergency. Designations of individuals in the list were put into an alphabetical list with Group A being the most dangerous, Group B being suspect and restricted in an emergency, and Group C as individuals who were not to be restricted but the bureau was watchful of them. The FBI wound up putting Margaret in the Group A category along with her then husband at the time Erskine Caldwell, which was the most dangerous. I only found out about the above information after I was finished reading her memoir and was extremely shocked to learn the above situation. It made me wonder that with the fact of her being assigned by Life Magazine to photograph on the moon, would she have been stopped by the government? If only she had lived several years beyond 1971, in 1985 the introduction of the Journalists in Space program would have helped her cause although it was scrubbed due to the Challenger Disaster. Despite all the challenges she faced, Margaret Bourke-White was an incredible photojournalist dedicated to her craft of showing the world what she saw through her viewfinder, her memoir is definitely worth the time taken to read it.

[Kassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

The autobiography of a truly fascinating woman who broke down barriers, shattered the glass ceiling, and led a fascinating life. Margaret Bourke-White is an inspiration to me and I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a hero.

[wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspiring autobiography by my favorite photographer. She was tough, independent and ahead of her time. She did many things people thought couldn't be done and it gives an idea of what it meant to be a photographer at that time. I highly recommend it.

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

a beautiful lens to history

Bourke-Whites’s entertaining stories about her assignments for Life were a delightful surprise in this autobiography. I’m an art teacher, and Bourke-White is a photographer I teach my students about. I was curious about this fearless artist on the Chrysler gargoyle 61 stories about NYC, so I read this as research for my teaching. I recommend it to anyone interested in 20th century history, not least to learn about the mind behind so many iconic photos through which we still see into the past.

[Luanne Booth · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inspiration!

When you need a break from our world today, this autobiography will take you deep into the courage and mindfulness of a remarkable woman . Initially, you will find that Bourke-White's world feels much the same as ours today. So not really a break at all, from ravages of war and misguided ideas. What you come to appreciate, however, is how this adventurous and exemplary woman approaches challenges and lives to bring the oftentimes distressing news of her world to a very personal level of compassion and understanding.

[Joann Scanlon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Portrait of Myself by Margaret Bourk White
I have always recognized the name of this famous female photographer whose work arrived in my home weekly captured in the pages of Life magazine. Her studies took us places I would never have known nor had any ideas of trying to see. I think most of us will recognize those faces taken across America during that terrible dustbowl. Her photos in the midst of World War II from bombings in Germany to the liberation of the death camps. She was incredibly brave, trying everything to get the right angle/light.

[John Rader · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was recommended by a friend. It was an interesting chronicle of a very extraordinary life of a woman I had never heard about. She forged a career in a male dominated profession. The places she traveled to and the historical people she met was intriguing. The events Margaret photographed were fascinating and historically significant. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a remarkable woman ahead of her time with a different view of historical people and events.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarkable woman. The story reads like the story of Forest Gump but it’s all true! This is an extremely positive book, written to touch on a variety of experiences. For more detail on the complexities of her photographic assignments, I would recommend reading her individual books written after some of her assignments.

[ChrissieP · Rating 3 out of 5]

This memoir takes us through the story of an illustrious career, distinctive in many ways. Bourke-White launches her career at a time when photographic technique is advancing, industry wishes to document its importance, and new industrial magazines hungry for brilliant photography are born. Bourke-White’s talent and drive feature prominently in this era.

[Gale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Occasionally, a book comes across the return desk at the Library that looks intriguing. This was one such book. I’m glad I decided to read more about the famous photographer. She wrote it in 1963; what a terrific writer, and what a life she lead!

[Richie · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredible life she led, and what insight and sympathy she had for people of the world. This is a book that takes you on so many journeys and truly lets you live many other lives. Just brilliant.

[Sherry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This read like an adventure novel.

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read. This woman has had an incredibly fascinating life, any human would find her story inspiring.

[Marti Piepgras · Rating 5 out of 5]

adventurous life, well told!

[emanumela · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐️

[Eileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent not only for her career as a photographer but also for snapshots of history .

[Susan Baumgartner · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerfully creative woman I stumbled across by chance learning of another woman from her time that lived outside the norms, Florence Horn.

[Isabella · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read

Margaret Bourke-White is the hero you haven’t heard of: a self-taught photographer, Life reporter, and adventurer at heart. Everyone should know her story.

[Olga Vannucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

My grandmother's generation,
Photographed across the nation
And then all around the world,
Leaders, people, and two wars.

[Daniel Rosenburg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has so many interesting subjects: photography, strong women, great mid-20th century events and people. MBW lived an amazing life.

[Robin Yaklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

My gosh she led a charmed and adventurous life. I picked this up as research for my own novel and was fascinated. I want to re-read it. Bourke White was one of the first war correspondents. She filled the pages of Life magazine with her photographs. But, beyond that she was fearless. From newly-constructed hydro-electric dams to freeing concentration camps to bombing runs to generals' who make sure she has a private recon airplane to friends in high places. What a life. It's the stuff of fiction and, yet, Bourke White was a real, living, breathing person.

[Suzie Raquel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A riveting read. No whining about the obstacles of working in a "man's world" despite the gender issues she must have faced. It's focused instead on the ways she handled people in power in order to capture iconic images on the front lines of WWII, Stalin and his henchmen, the disgraceful conditions of apartheid, Gandhi's life and death. Every hardship was just a quirk to her, even her battle with Parkinson's. Her mind went in so many directions--the natural world, architecture, mechanics, politics, and her focus so intense. I would have loved to have met her.

[Doug Dams · Rating 4 out of 5]

The autobiography of Margaret Bourke-White was better than my expectations. She has a real comfortable writing style. I enjoyed reading how she got started in photography and how she approached photographing WW2 combat. I enjoyed reading it and her impressions of people like Ghandi.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

• When he spoke, the words streamed out all in capitals, underlined, and sparked with exclamation points.

[Sami · Rating 5 out of 5]

A roll model for me. What a person!

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many interesting stories! I hadn't realized how much Margaret Bourke-White did. I like her writing style a lot too, engaging and very easy to follow

[Katharine Holden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating.