Esther Bubley American, 1921- Photojournalist Esther Bubley, born in Phillips, Wisconsin, began her career working with Roy Stryker in the Office of War Information during the 1940s. After studies at Superior State Teachers College (1937–38) and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (1939), Bubley secured a temporary job in New York City as a freelance photographer for Vogue in 1940. She moved to Washington, D.C., a year or two later, working as a microfilmer at the National Archives and then as a darkroom technician for Roy Stryker at the Farm Security Administration. In 1942 the fsa was transferred to the Office of War Information; Bubley was promoted to staff photographer the following year. She embarked on her first assignment, a study of the country's bus system, in September 1943. During a six-week bus trip she took more than 400 pictures documenting her travels throughout the Midwest and the South. Shortly after the assignment began, Stryker resigned from the government to oversee the Standard Oil Company's new photographic project. He invited Bubley to participate, and in 1945 she spent several weeks photographing various Texas oil towns. Two years later she produced a second bus series for the company. In the late 1940s Bubley accepted occasional assignments from the Ladies Home Journal (the "How America Lives" series) and in 1951 began working for Life, an association that lasted until the magazine ceased publication. Throughout her career Bubley has also photographed for McCall's, Harper's Bazaar, Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping, and U.S. Camera. She lives in New York. M.M.