I've never known a human being that had such a beautiful spirit. Like somebody with their open arms coming to you. There will never be another one like that again. She was a fabulous woman because of her terrific drive and energy. I never saw anything like it, never saw another person to equal that drive. It came out the minute you were in her presence, in her speech, in her moves.

As the echoes of the old debate - is photography an art? - die away, a new and infinitely more important question arises. To what extent are photographers becoming aware of the social scene and how significantly are their photographs portraying it? The major control is the photographer's point of view. How alive is he? Does he know what is happening in the world? How sensitive has he become during the course of his own photographic development to the world-shaking changes in the social scene about him?

All creative workers will comprehend that in a large sense these problems apply to all workers whether they are building motor trucks, railroad trestles, power dams, or pictures. It is my own conviction that defense of the economic needs, as well as their liberty of artistic expression, will inevitably draw them closer to the struggle of the great masses of American people for security and the abundant life which they are more than anxious to earn by productive work.

She more or less relied upon me as a sort of official guide. But once she got there, the whole situation was in her hands. She was in charge of everything, manipulating people and telling them where to sit and where to look and what not. She was very adept at being able to direct people. She was almost like a motion picture director. Very astute in that respect. That's how she achieved such a good effect, I think, with her settings, and her people not so much staging it, but helping people be themselves.

The great revolution of journalism are not revolutions in public opinion, but revolutions in the way in which public opinion is formed. The greatest of these, a revolution greater even than of the printing press, is the revolution of the camera. But it is also a revolution which has not yet been brought to use. Magazines and newspapers have made use of photographs, but not in their own terms. Photographs have been used as illustrations, but the camera no longer illustrates. The camera tells. The camera shall take its place as the greatest and by all measurements the most convincing reporter of contemporary life.

It is my firm belief that democracy will not lose hold as long as people really know what is going on and the photographer has a very valuable part to do in showing what is going on. I believe that fascism could not have gained the lead it has in Europe if there had been a truly free press so that the great mass of people could have been informed and then could not have misled as they have been by false promises.

In the compendium of the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Miss Bourke-White is cited thirteen times. Erskine Caldwell, himself cited twenty-two times in the compendium, has collaborated with her on three propaganda books, You Have Seen Their Faces, North of the Danube, and Say, is this the U.S.A.

In a whole lifetime of taking pictures, a photographer knows that the time will come when he will take one picture that seems the most important of all. You hope the sun will be shining, and that you will have a simple and significant and beautiful background. You pray there won't be any unwanted people staring into the lens. Most of all, you hope that the emotion you are trying to capture will be the real one, and will be reflected on the faces of the people you are photographing.