Margaret Bourke-White: Depression Era Food Line

A good photojournalist might count himself lucky if he gets only one of his images published in a leading newspaper. A good photo should be able to convey an entire story on its own, but sometimes the image itself might be misleading because of the time and place it was made. In this famous example, Margaret Bourke-White's picture of a depression era food line has actually more to tell than its face value.

This thought-provoking photograph was captured by Margaret Bourke-White during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The image shows a group of mostly black men and women lining up for food against a giant billboard that has the caption, "World's Highest Standard of Living". The overhead picture also shows a  middle-class white family, smiling in their car with the tagline, "There's no way like the American Way".

The juxtaposition of the poor black people and the happy white family is quite striking, which makes this photograph one of the most recognizable images of the Great Depression. However, this is misleading as the image was taken right after the Ohio River Flood of 1937. Over one million residents were left homeless after the flood, which only exacerbated the conditions of the 1930s depression. A lot of residents had to resort to charitable donations after the catastrophe, and Bourke-White entitled the photograph, "Kentucky Flood".

While the lack of an appropriate description might mislead some into thinking that everywhere people were always in food lines around 1930s America, the photograph is still quite symbolic of the great depression. LIFE Magazine has more details on the life of Margaret Bourke-White as well as some more background on her most famous photograph.