Ruth Bernhard American photographer Date of Birth: 14.10.1905 Country: USA

Biography of Ruth Bernhard

Ruth Bernhard was an American photographer known for her work primarily with black and white images. Born in Berlin, Germany in 1905, she developed a passion for photography while living in the city and eventually graduated from the Berlin Academy of Art in 1927. In the late 1920s, Bernhard left Germany with her father and immigrated to New York.

Bernhard was an unconventional and somewhat scandalous figure throughout her life. Until 1967, she identified as a lesbian, but at the age of 62, she unexpectedly changed her sexual orientation and began a relationship with a male lover, a black American colonel who was around 50 years old. Her eccentricity extended to her photographic work as well. She had been fascinated with photography since childhood, but it was in the United States in the 1930s that she began her professional career. Her main subject matter was always the female nude, and many esteemed critics still consider her the unparalleled master of this genre.

While living in New York, Bernhard became an active participant in the lesbian art community. In 1944, she met Evelyn Phimister, an artist and designer, and the two became a couple for the next ten years. Following Evelyn, Bernhard moved to California, first to Carmel and then to San Francisco in 1953, where she spent the remainder of her life.

Bernhard's most famous photograph is "Two Forms" from 1962, depicting two women—a black woman and a white woman—pressed against each other. She primarily worked with black and white images throughout her career. In 1979, her book of photographs, "Collecting Light: The Photographs of Ruth Bernhard," was published. She authored a total of four album books during her lifetime, with her final work, "Gift of the Commonplace," released in 1996. Her 1986 album, "The Eternal Body: A Collection of Fifty Nudes," gained significant recognition and received several awards for its beautiful depictions of the female nude.

In 1967, Ruth Bernhard, a seasoned lesbian, underwent a radical shift in her life when she met Colonel Price Rice, a black military man ten years her junior. They remained together for almost three decades until his death in 1999. When she was over 90 years old, Bernhard published her autobiography, "Ruth Bernhard, Between Art and Life," in collaboration with biographer Margaret K. Mitchell.

Despite her remarkable achievements, Bernhard's death in 2006 at the age of 101 did not receive widespread attention. She was included in the National Women's Caucus for Art in 1981, and the legendary photographer Ansel Adams once referred to her as the "greatest nude photographer."

"Photographs come to life on their own—I simply assist them," Ruth Bernhard once said.