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Ammonia Storage Tanks

Date
1930
Classification
Photographs
Current Location
Not on view
Dimensions
13 x 9 1/8 in. (33 x 23.2 cm)
Credit Line
Museum Purchase and the Martin Schweig Memorial Fund for Photography
Rights
© The Estate of Margaret Bourke-White.
Object Number
87:1976
NOTES
Like hot-air balloons, massive spherical tanks of toxic gas hover overhead in Margaret Bourke-White’s photograph of a German ammonia factory. The tanks dwarf two workers standing on top in a visual metaphor of industrial might. Bourke-White shot this photograph for a story on German heavy industry in 1930 while on assignment for "Fortune" magazine. This ammonia factory was operated by IG Farben, Germany’s biggest chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturer and the single largest donor to the Nazi party’s successful 1932 election campaign.

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