Ruth Bernhard, Passion Flower and Bone

Written by USU Student Myles Howell

March 24, 2017

Ruth Bernhard (1905 – 2006) was born in Berlin, Germany and studied at the Berlin Academy of Art from 1925-27. Shortly after graduation Bernhard moved to New York to join her father who was working as a poster and typography artist. Bernhard’s first job was as a darkroom assistant for a women’s magazine. There she helped develop the negatives shot for the magazine articles. This job only lasted a few months before her decision to leave in pursuit of freelance photography. She was able to acquire jobs through her father and also through her growing reputation via her freelance photos. Her father was able to find her photo jobs and would allow her to use his photography studio to set up nude models draped in sheer fabrics. In these sessions Bernhard used dramatic lighting, paired-down compositions, and materials from everyday life. She is known for her still-life photographs, as well nudes, and credited her friend and mentor Edward Weston as her main inspiration. “ I had not respected photography until I met him,” she once said of Weston. “I began then to take myself serious as an artist.” [1]

Bernhard typically arranged items into a still life. It was a moment of spontaneity that got her interested in nudes as subject matter. In an interview Bernhard stated, “ The reason I photographed my first nude was not because I planned it, or was influenced by what other photographers were doing. It was because I was working on a catalog for The Museum of Modern Art called Machine Art. One object to be photographed was a stainless steel bowl, maybe 40-inches in diameter, or larger, that is used in big hotels.”[2] She went on to tell the story of her friend who was there with her during the photo shoot. Her friend was a free spirit and thought nothing of taking her clothes off. Bernhard instinctively envisioned her friend curled in this bowl like an embryo. She asked her friend to climb in and that was the first nude Bernhard ever shot.

NEHMA has a few of Bernhard’s photographs in their permanent collection along with this example entitled, Passionflower and Bone. This object truly shows Bernhard’s eye as an artist in the subject matter and composition. The bone has a weathered texture, and was possibly something collected from nature. The decomposition of the bone has beautiful texture paired and the natural curves of the pelvis bone create a perfect background for the passionflower. With this composition Bernhard symbolically depicts life and death. She captures a moment in which the viewer can see these two objects balanced in harmony. Bernhard composed the photo so that the two objects push outside the frame and lead the viewer’s eye off the edge. Bernhard highlighted the curves of both the passionflower and bone with the use of exposed lighting and shadow and a dark backdrop to expose the lightness of the subject matter.

Sources:
1. Mary Rourke, Times Staff Writer. http://article.latimes.com/2006/dec/20/local/me-bernhard20
2. Donna Conrad, A Conversation with Ruth Bernhard, Photovision Magazing, Vol. 1 No. 3, 1994. http://photovisionmagazine.com/arti…/bernhard.interview.html

This month's From the Vault is part of an object-based research assignment from Professor Marissa Vigneault's course ARTH 3750 High Modernism to Post Modernism: 1945-1989.