Artwork Page for Rising Cantilevers

Details / Information for Rising Cantilevers

Rising Cantilevers

1927

Margaret Bourke-White

(American, 1904–1971)
Culture
America
Medium
gelatin silver print
Measurements
Image: 24.2 x 18.7 cm (9 1/2 x 7 3/8 in.); Paper: 25.3 x 20.3 cm (9 15/16 x 8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of William and Margaret Lipscomb 2021.209
Copyright
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

Margaret Bourke-White launched her career as a professional photographer in Cleveland.

Description

Bourke-White photographed the start of construction of Cleveland’s Lorain-Carnegie Bridge (now the Hope Memorial Bridge). Industrial imagery was not a traditional subject for women, but it attracted Bourke-White. "To me . . . industrial forms were all the more beautiful because they were never designed to be beautiful. They had a simplicity of line that came from their direct application of purpose. Industry . . . had evolved an unconscious beauty—often a hidden beauty that was waiting to be discovered." A print of this image was exhibited at the museum in the 1929 May Show.
A vertically oriented black-and-white photograph captures a construction site silhouetted against a pale sky. At the top left, a massive metal bridge structure looms over several tall, upright wooden beams clustered in the center. Three workers perch atop these beams, handling cables. A lattice crane boom angles upward from the lower right. The dark, geometric forms of the machinery and timber create a stark, industrial composition against the bright background.

Rising Cantilevers

1927

Margaret Bourke-White

(American, 1904–1971)
America

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