Ruth Bernhard
[Photographer, b. 1905, Berlin, d. 2006, San Francisco.]
As [with] the Haiku poems of Japanese literature, expressive photographs lead viewers into amazing realms of visual poetic imagery.
Every day I am aware of the flow and constant change; perhaps I am at the edge of discovering what more our bodies might be able to teach about the spirit of life. At least, I am always exploring and trying to understand our relationship to the whole universe.
My photographic images search for dimensions that words cannot touch—the result of intense responses to personal experiences. I do not wish to “record,” but rather to touch upon the elusive meanings which I perceive and try to comprehend in this limitless universe.
For me, the creation of a photograph is experienced as a heightened emotional response, most akin to poetry and music, each image the culmination of a compelling impulse I cannot deny. Whether working with a human figure or a still life, I am deeply aware of my spiritual connection with it. In my life, as in my work, I am motivated by a great yearning for balance and harmony beyond the realm of human experience, reaching for the essence of oneness with the Universe.
[The nude] represents to me the same universal innocence, timelessness, and purity as do all seed pods (suggesting the mother as well as the child, the parental as well as the descendants,) conceived according to nature’s longing. The human body implies its reproductive function, its vitality and its continuity.
Light is my inspiration, my paint and brush. It is as vital as the model herself. Profoundly significant, it caresses the essential superlative curves and lines. Light I acknowledge as the energy upon which all life on this planet depends.
After all these years, it is still the quality, the mood, the radiance of light which motivates me to work passionately, almost like an obsession.
