Seeing the United States from the sky was a new idea back in 1952. It wasn’t common to take photos from way up high, especially not from a helicopter. A famous photographer named Margaret Bourke-White did just that for LIFE magazine. She went up in helicopters to take pictures of the country from a bird’s-eye view.
Bourke-White worked for LIFE magazine, a very popular publication at the time. People who read LIFE knew her well for her adventurous photography. So, when she took on the challenge of photographing from helicopters, it wasn’t a big surprise to many. She was known for tackling difficult and unique photo assignments.
In the spring of 1952, Bourke-White traveled across America for this special project. Her journey took her to states like New York, California, Illinois, and Indiana, among others. She didn’t just photograph famous landmarks that everyone recognized. She also captured images of ordinary, everyday places, showing them in a way people hadn’t seen before.
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Using helicopters, sometimes called “whirlibirds” back then, was quite unusual for photography projects. Helicopters could hover and fly lower or in different ways than airplanes. This allowed Bourke-White to get pictures from angles that were impossible before. The photos she took gave a thrilling, high-up perspective on American scenes.
Taking pictures from a helicopter was so different and exciting that LIFE magazine dedicated a long, 12-page article to Bourke-White’s work. The photographs showed familiar and unfamiliar parts of the country from a completely fresh viewpoint. Many people found these aerial pictures, taken from buzzing helicopters, to be simply and impressively cool.
