Good Reads / Community Library Notes
GIRL WITH A CAMERA
Carolyn Meyer
Review by Priscilla Comen
GIRL WITH A CAMERA
Carolyn Meyer
Review by Priscilla Comen
Girl With A Camera by Carolyn Meyer is about the famous photographer Margaret Bourke White. As a young girl she was a wallflower at school dances, and looked unsophisticated in wool skirts and black cotton stockings. After going to university at Barnard, White transferred to University of Michigan. A neighbor had offered to pay her tuition for one year. It wasn’t a loan; she could repay by sponsoring another young student. They also gave her enough money to buy more attractive clothing, which she did.
At summer camp in CT, she photographed the other campers and sent the photos to their parents, who ordered thousands of copies. As her passion for photography grew, she took more daring photos from dizzying heights and from under ground sewers. A photo class from Clarence White inspired her, Joe Vlack challenged her with new ideas. Told in White’s own words, author Meyer sounds totally convincing. Meyer found White’s yearbook and personal papers to enhance this novel.
When Margaret fell in love with “Chappie” she was often depressed. She couldn’t decide between marrying him or having an adventurous life traveling the world. They worked together on the college newspaper, fought and made up. Her life was full of ups and downs. Literally! After two years of marriage, she and Chappie separated. Chappie’s mother had been the wrench in the wheel of their relationship. She returned to writing and photos. At Cornell, where she then attended, she took photos of architecture and rivers.
After moving to Cleveland, she photographed in earnest: a bull in the bank lobby for a book promotion, a black man in the square lecturing a flock of pigeons. Soon, Margareet was hired by Fortune magazine, and moved to a penthouse in New York. She was hired by Mr. Chrysler to photograph the construction of the Chrysler building, the tallest building in the country at that time. She became what she had always wanted to be: rich and famous. But was she happy? She traveled to Germany, then to Russia to photograph life there. She returns to the U.S. to find the Depression in full bloom. She is assigned to photograph the devastation in the mid-West. She does not escape the economic disaster. She leaves her penthouse and sells her car.
When she works on a book with Erskine Caldwell, she falls in love with him. Still not ready to marry, she goes off on assignment to the Fort Peck dam in the town of New Deal, and then to the Artic for more photos. Caldwell sends her letter after letter and telegrams begging her to marry him. She’s married to her camera, she tells him.
This story about a bold, daring, talented woman is a must-read. Find it on the new fiction shelf of your community library.
At summer camp in CT, she photographed the other campers and sent the photos to their parents, who ordered thousands of copies. As her passion for photography grew, she took more daring photos from dizzying heights and from under ground sewers. A photo class from Clarence White inspired her, Joe Vlack challenged her with new ideas. Told in White’s own words, author Meyer sounds totally convincing. Meyer found White’s yearbook and personal papers to enhance this novel.
When Margaret fell in love with “Chappie” she was often depressed. She couldn’t decide between marrying him or having an adventurous life traveling the world. They worked together on the college newspaper, fought and made up. Her life was full of ups and downs. Literally! After two years of marriage, she and Chappie separated. Chappie’s mother had been the wrench in the wheel of their relationship. She returned to writing and photos. At Cornell, where she then attended, she took photos of architecture and rivers.
After moving to Cleveland, she photographed in earnest: a bull in the bank lobby for a book promotion, a black man in the square lecturing a flock of pigeons. Soon, Margareet was hired by Fortune magazine, and moved to a penthouse in New York. She was hired by Mr. Chrysler to photograph the construction of the Chrysler building, the tallest building in the country at that time. She became what she had always wanted to be: rich and famous. But was she happy? She traveled to Germany, then to Russia to photograph life there. She returns to the U.S. to find the Depression in full bloom. She is assigned to photograph the devastation in the mid-West. She does not escape the economic disaster. She leaves her penthouse and sells her car.
When she works on a book with Erskine Caldwell, she falls in love with him. Still not ready to marry, she goes off on assignment to the Fort Peck dam in the town of New Deal, and then to the Artic for more photos. Caldwell sends her letter after letter and telegrams begging her to marry him. She’s married to her camera, she tells him.
This story about a bold, daring, talented woman is a must-read. Find it on the new fiction shelf of your community library.