THERESE BONNEY
War's mindless uprooting of innocent civilians provided the principal
subject for photographer Therese Bonney (1894-1978) during World War II.
Bonney's images of homeless children and adults on the backroads of Europe
touched millions of viewers in the United States and abroad.
Educated at Berkeley, Harvard, Columbia, and the Sorbonne, Bonney settled
in Paris in 1919 to pursue photography and promote cultural exchange between
France and the United States. The outbreak of World War II appalled Bonney,
who believed the conflict threatened European civilization itself. Of
her "truth raids" into the countryside to document the horror of war,
Bonney said: "I go forth alone, try to get the truth and then bring it
back and try to make others face it and do something about it."
Not content with publishing solely in mass-circulation newspapers and
magazines, Bonney sought other opportunities to present her work. She
published the photo-essay books War Comes to the People (1940)
and Europe's Children (1943) and mounted one-woman shows
at the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, and dozens of museums
overseas. Bonney's concept for a film about children displaced by war
became the Academy Award- winning movie, The Search (1948).
A media star herself, Bonney was the heroine of a wartime comic book,
"Photofighter."
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Bonney's Account of
War in Finland
"How Peace Came to Finland,"
Photogravure Section,
Washington Post,
December 8, 1940
Serial and Government Publications Division (6) |
Solo "Truth Raids" Won Public Spotlight
Dorothy Dunbar Bromley,
"Therese Bonney Brings Back Pictorial
Record of Europe's Tragic Children,"
New York Herald Tribune,
February 28, 1943, Section V, p. 3
Serial and Government
Publications Division (7) |
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"A Woman Needs to Wear Pants in War"
[image not available online]
[Bonney in ski suit], c. 1940
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (8)
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"Truth Raid" Photos
Debuted
at Library of Congress
Invitation to Exhibition Opening,
November 15, 1940
Rare Book and
Special Collections Division (9) |
Bonney's Book Based on Exhibitions
Therese Bonney,
War Comes to the People,
London: The Penndock Press, 1944
(left page) (right
page)
General Collections (11) |
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War's Effect on Civilians
Explored in Exhibits
Therese Bonney,
[Took Refuge in Barns], c. 1940
Prints and Photographs Division
Reproduced courtesy of the Bancroft Library,
University of California, Berkeley (12) |
Bonney Twice Decorated
for Military Bravery
[Therese Bonney
wearing medal],
February 1942
New York World-Telegram
& Sun Collection,
Prints and Photographs Division (14)
LC-USZ62-113325 |
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Comic Based on Bonney's Adventures
"Photofighter,"
True Comics,
July 1944, pp. 14, 15, 16
Serial and Government
Publications Division (15)
LC-USZC4-9007
LC-USZC4-9008
LC-USZC4-9009 |
Aid for War Victims
Therese Bonney,
[So few have understood,
the Quakers, Red Crosses---nuns,]
c. 1940
Prints and Photographs Division (16)
Reproduced courtesy of the Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley |
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The Price of War for
Children
Therese Bonney,
[Timidly---they climb the walls to
would-be homes in gutted houses]
c. 1940
Prints and Photographs Division (17)
Reproduced courtesy of the Bancroft Library,
University of California, Berkeley |
Lives Uprooted by War
Therese Bonney,
[Meals cooked in the fields,]
c. 1940
Prints and Photographs Division (18)
Reproduced courtesy of the Bancroft Library,
University of California, Berkeley |
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Bonney's Book of Photos
of Children
Therese Bonney,
Europe's Children,
New York: Plantin Press, 1943
Rare Book and
Special Collections Division (19) |
Bonney Story on the
Big Screen
Advertising poster for
The Search,
Loew's Inc., 1948
Prints and Photographs Division (21) |
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