Margaret Bourke-White’s You Have Seen Their Faces, published as a book and created in collaboration with author Erskine Caldwell between 1936 and 1937, examines the daily lives of Southern sharecroppers during the Great Depression. Over two trips spanning about six months, Bourke-White and Caldwell documented these communities, marking a significant shift in Bourke-White’s career from industrial and architectural photography to a focus on social documentary.
The project arose during a time of profound economic and social instability, with widespread poverty and racial inequality defining much of the Southern agricultural landscape. By focusing on the entrenched cycles of debt and dependency perpetuated by the sharecropping system, the work critiques the structural inequities that sustained such poverty. Bourke-White’s photographs, coupled with Caldwell’s accompanying text, provide a direct depiction of these realities, while also emphasizing the strength and humanity of the individuals portrayed. Most of the images feature static portraits, encouraging direct engagement with the subjects, while the settings often highlight scenes of daily life and familial or community relationships.
Bourke-White was known for her technical precision and control over her imagery. In You Have Seen Their Faces, she frequently used artificial lighting, particularly flash, to create dramatic effects and highlight her subjects. This technique contributed to the staged quality of some photographs, which has sparked debates about representation. Caldwell’s narrative contributions, including fictionalized captions, further fueled discussions on the ethics of the work.
The book’s 1937 release reached a wide public—amplified by Life magazine coverage and by both hardcover and low-cost editions. Later museum retrospectives have kept the images in circulation, and the project is often read alongside Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by Walker Evans, emphasizing its role in shaping the early photo‑essay.
