Ruth Bernhard
In the Box - Horizontal
1962
Gelatin silver print, printed later. 19.3 x 34.4 cm. Flush-mounted to original card, signed in pencil below the image on the mount. Signed, dated, titled and dedicated in pencil as well as photographer's stamp on the reverse of the mount.
Ansel Adams called her 'the greatest nude photographer': Ruth Bernhard, born in Berlin, who caused a sensation in the 1950s with her sensitively composed and carefully illuminated nudes and still lifes. The influence that her teacher and mentor Edward Weston exerted on her photographic style is unmistakable. 'In photographing the nude, it is my aim to transform the complexities of the figure into harmonies of simplified form, illuminating the innate life force and spirit as well as the underlying remarkable bone structure. The endless variety of nature's designs and shapes amaze and thrill me. I have approached my work with the nude much as I create a still life - with patience and reverence. My quest, through the magic of light and shadow, is to isolate, to simplify and to give emphasis to form with the greatest clarity. To indicate ideal proportion, to reveal sculptural mass and the dominating spirit is my goal.' (as cited by Ruth Bernhard, in: The Collection of Ginny Williams, exhib.cat. Denver Art Museum, Denver 1993, n.pag.)
Literature
Margaretta K. Mitchell, Ruth Bernhard. The eternal Body. A Collection of fifty Nudes, San Francisco 1994, plate 19