Ruth Bernhard (born 1905), photographer, was born in Berlin, Germany. Her father, Lucien Bernhard , was known as the "Father of the German Poster", and was famed as well for his typeface design. Bernhard studied at the Berlin Academy of Art.

Bernhard moved to New York in 1927. In 1935, she chanced to meet Edward Weston on the beach in Santa Monica.

I was unprepared for the experience of seeing his pictures for the first time. It was overwhelming. It was lightning in the darkness . . . here before me was indisputable evidence of what I had thought possible—an intensely vital artist whose medium was photography.

She moved to Carmel, California and worked with Group f/64. Soon, finding Carmel a difficult place in which to earn a living, she moved to Hollywood where she fashioned a career as a commercial photographer. In 1953, she moved to San Francisco.

Bernhard's work ranges from simple still lives to complex nudes. She works almost exclusively in black and white, though there are rumours that she has done some color work as well.

External links

• http://www.womeninphotography.org/ruthbernhardAA.html -- Women in Photography