Marguerite Baker Johnson (1899-1981)


Marguerite Baker Johnson
Kentucky--Boonesboro on the Kentucky River

silver gelatin print
titled verso in pencil
9 1/4 x 7 1/4 inches

stamp verso: Baker Johnson
334 Hillcrest
Grosse Pointe 36, Michigan

$250

Marguerite Baker Johnson was a mid-20th century photo-journalist who followed in the footsteps of the celebrated women photographers of the WPA era capturing views of American life.

Her work appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, London Times, Daily Mirror, US Camera Annual, British Photography Yearbook, Popular Photography Annual and several automotive periodicals. She garnered some fame out West as the first woman to take photographs inside the arena at "Cheyenne Frontier Days" in Wyoming, a task formerly done by males because of the danger involved.

She worked with her son, Lee Baker Johnson, whose photographs were used in Life and Fortune magazines, as well as in advertising. Together their work spans the 1940s to the 1970s.

Marguerite Johnson was a native of Brussels, Belgium, who came to the United States in 1914. Her father, Michael Wellman, was a furrier in Detroit, Michigan, and she married salesman Baker Johnson in 1929.