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Ruth Bernhard
1905-2006
Ruth Bernhard was born in Berlin in 1905, and studied at the Berlin Academy of Art. Moving to New York in 1927, she began a career in commercial photography. Almost a decade later, she met Edward Weston, whose compelling images convinced her that photography was indeed a creative medium. In the 1940s Ms. Bernhard became part of Group f/64, joining Modernist West Coast photographers like Weston, Ansel Adams, Minor White, Imogen Cunningham, Wynn Bullock and Dorothea Lange. All took a purist approach to their subjects. Their work is characterized by photographic clarity and detailed precision. In 1953, Bernhard moved to San Francisco, where she lived for the rest of her life.
In a career spanning more than seven decades, Ruth Bernhard created an imposing body of work. Distinguished by their exquisite use of light, her images have been internationally recognized and acclaimed by her peers. Radiant still lifes and nude forms reflect her passionate search for the universal connection of all things. “If I have chosen the female form in particular, it is because beauty has been debased and exploited in our sensual 20th century,” she told Margaretta K. Mitchell, author of “Ruth Bernhard: Between Art and Life” (2000). “Woman has been the subject of much that is sordid and cheap, especially in photography. To raise, to elevate, to endorse with timeless reverence the image of woman has been my mission.”
Bernhard's work has been exhibited and included in the permanent collections of major museums and universities in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Mexico, and has been published worldwide.
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