Campbell's Soup #6
(1935)
Medium
gelatin silver print
Measurements
17.3 × 24.1 cm (image and sheet)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Bowness Family Fund for Photography, 2024
© Public Domain
Gallery location
Special Exhibitions Gallery
Ground Level, NGV International
About this work
Margaret Bourke-White became widely known for her documentation of workers and scenes of modern industry. Her photography was used on the cover of the first issue of Fortune magazine in 1930, and on the first photographically illustrated cover of Life in 1936. Bourke-White often documented aspects of the Machine Age, contrasting machines and human labourers. Taken in a factory owned by Campbell’s, a major American canned-food company established in 1869, this photograph captures part of the canning process. Bourke-White’s framing, which does not show the worker’s face, amplifies the dominance of the machine. The image first featured as a commission for a local food magazine alongside the caption ‘tangled and tricky, spaghetti defeats the mechanic’.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
New Jersey, United States
Inscription
stamped in red ink on reverse u.c.: Bourke-White from PICTURES INC.
Accession Number
2024.11
Department
International Photography