A woman who defined passionate excellence, photographer and writer Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971) was a pioneer in the field of photojournalism.

She shot the cover for the first issue of Life magazine (1936) and her photo essay inside was the first ever published in America.

Her goal was to "expand the pictorial files of history for the world to see. Just one inch in a long mile," she explained.

An eyewitness to some of the most remarkable events of the 20th century, her photo essays of the Depression, World War II, and South African apartheid brilliantly recorded truth and called attention to the suffering of unknown people.

"If anyone gets in my way when I’m making a picture, I become irrational. I’m never sure what I am going to do, or sometimes even aware of what I do—only that I want that picture," she said of her work.

Born on this day in New York City, Bourke-White had extraordinary self-confidence and determination to excel. She risked her life to snap her images for Life and Fortune magazines.

"Usually I object when someone makes overmuch of men’s work versus women’s work, for I think it is the excellence of the results which counts," she said.

The tough, feisty woman photographed the famous leaders of her time: Churchill... Roosevelt... Stalin. Her famous photograph of Mahatma Gandhi seated next to his spinning wheel was taken after he required her to learn how to spin.

"Utter truth is essential...and to get that truth may take a lot of searching and long hours," said the woman who fought Parkinson's disease for 17 years.

"Work is something you can count on, a trusted, lifelong friend who never deserts you."

More Photography Quotations

The key to change... is to let go of fear