California New York
Where did Ruth Bernhard work between Jan 1936 and Aug 1939?
Ruth Bernhard Ruth Bernhard ( October 14 , 1905 – December 18 , 2006 ) was a German-born American photographer . Early life and education . Bernhard was born in Berlin to Lucian Bernhard and Gertrude Hoffmann . Lucian Bernhard was known for his poster and typeface design , many of which bear his name and are still in use . Bernhards parents divorced when she was 2 years old and she only met her mother twice after the divorce . She was raised by two schoolteacher sisters and their mother . Bernhards father Lucian was a major proponent of Ruths work , and advised her frequently . Bernhard studied art history and typography at the Berlin Academy of Art from 1925 to 1927 before moving to New York City to join her father . She began teaching at the University of California in 1958 , while also giving lectures , classes and workshops all over the United States . Photography career . In 1927 Bernhard moved to New York City , where her father was already living . She worked as an assistant to Ralph Steiner in Delineator magazine , but he terminated her employment for indifferent performance . Using the severence pay , Bernhard bought her own camera equipment . By the late-1920s , while living in Manhattan , Bernhard was heavily involved in the lesbian sub-culture of the artistic community , becoming friends with photographer Berenice Abbott and her lover , critic Elizabeth McCausland . Her first realization that she was attracted to other women occurred on New Years Eve 1928 when she met the painter Patti Light . She wrote about her bisexual escapades in her memoir . In 1934 Bernhard began photographing women in the nude . It would be this art form for which she would eventually become best known . In 1935 , she chanced to meet Edward Weston on the beach in Santa Monica . She would later say ; Bernhard was so inspired by Westons work that , after meeting him in 1935 , she moved to California ( where he lived ) . In 1939 , Bernhard moved back to New York for eight years , during which time she met photographer Alfred Stieglitz . Bernhard was inspired by the small things in her life . In an interview from 1999 with Photographers Forum , Ruth states , I’m most interested in—the little things that nobody observes , that nobody thinks are of any value . In the same interview she stated that,Everything is universal and that she was very much aware of that . This idea of minimalism drove her passion for photography . In 1934 Ruth received a commission from the Museum of Modern Art ( MoMA ) to photograph works for the Machine Art exhibition catalog . Her father Lucian Bernhard set up the meeting with MoMA for her . Life on the West Coast . By 1944 she had met and became involved with artist and designer Eveline ( Evelyn ) Phimister . The two moved in together , and remained together for the next ten years in Carmel , California . Here , Bernhard worked with Group f/64 . Soon , finding Carmel a difficult place in which to earn a living , they moved to Hollywood where she fashioned a career as a commercial photographer . In 1953 , they moved to San Francisco where she became a colleague of photographers such as Ansel Adams , Imogen Cunningham , Minor White , and Wynn Bullock . Most of Bernhards work is studio-based , ranging from simple still lifes to complex nudes . In the 1940s she worked with the conchologist Jean Schwengel . She worked almost exclusively in black-and-white , though there are rumours that she had done some color work as well . She also is known for her lesbian themed works , most notably Two Forms ( 1962 ) . In that work , a black woman and a white woman who were real-life lovers are featured with their nude bodies pressed against one another . A departure was a collaboration with Melvin Van Peebles ( as Melvin Van ) , then a young cable car gripman ( driver ) in San Francisco . Van Peebles wrote the text and Bernhard took the unposed photographs for The Big Heart , a book about life on the cable cars . In the early 1980s , Bernhard started to work with Carol Williams , owner of Photography West Gallery in Carmel , California . Bernhard told Williams that she knew there would be a book of her photography after her death , but hoped one could be published during her lifetime . Williams approached New York Graphics Society , and several other photographic book publishers , but was advised that only Ansel Adams could sell black-and-white photography books . Bernhard and Williams decided to sell five limited edition prints to raise the necessary funds to publish a superior quality book of Ruth Bernhard nudes . The ensuing edition was produced by David Gray Gardner of Gardner Lithograph , ( also the printer of Adamss books ) and was called The Eternal Body . It won Photography Book of the Year in 1986 from Friends of Photography . This book was often credited by Ruth Bernhard as being an immeasurable help to her future career and public recognition . The Eternal Body was reprinted by Chronicle Books and later as a deluxe limited Centennial Edition in celebration of Ruth Bernhards 100th birthday in October 2005 . Carol Williams credited Ruth Bernhard with encouraging her to venture into book publishing , and later published several other photographic monographs . In the 1980s Bernhard also started to work with Joe Folberg . Folberg bought Vision Gallery from Douglas Elliott ( who founded it in 1979 ) in San Francisco in 1982 . Bernhard and Folberg worked together until Folbergs death . The gallery split with Debra Heimerdinger taking over operations in North America and Folbergs son Neil moving the Vision Gallery to Jerusalem . In 1967 , Bernhard began a teaching career . This same year , Bernhard met United States Air Force Colonel Price Rice , an African American man ten years younger than her , and the two became lovers . They would remain together until his death in 1999 . In her 90s , Bernhard cooperated with biographer Margaretta K . Mitchell in the book Ruth Bernhard , Between Art and Life , publicly revealing her many affairs with women and men throughout her lifetime . In 1984 Ruth worked with filmmaker Robert Burrill on her autobiographic film entitled , Illuminations : Ruth Bernhard , Photographer . The film premièred in 1989 at the Kabuki Theater in San Francisco and on local PBS station KQED in 1991 . Bernhard was inducted into the Womens Caucus for Art in 1981 . Bernhard was hailed by Ansel Adams as the greatest photographer of the nude . Bernhard died in San Francisco at age 101 . Publications by Bernhard . - Bernhard , Ruth . Collecting Light : The Photographs of Ruth Bernhard . Edited by James Alinder . Carmel , Calif. : Friends of Photography , 1979 - Bernhard , Ruth . Gift of the Commonplace . Carmel Valley , Calif. : Woodrose Publications / Center for Photographic Art , 1996 . - Bernhard , Ruth . The Eternal Body : A Collection of Fifty Nudes . Carmel , Calif. : Photography West Graphics , 1986 . San Francisco : Chronicle , 1994 . Essay by Margaretta K . Mitchell . - Van , Melvin , and Ruth Bernhard . The Big Heart . San Francisco : Fearon , 1957 . - Mitchell , Margaretta K. , and Ruth Bernhard . Ruth Bernhard : between art and life . San Francisco : Chronicle , 2000 . Print . Awards . - 1976 Dorothea Lange Award by the Oakland Museum - 1987 Distinguished Career in Photography Award . Society of Photographic education . Midwest Regional Conference , Chicago , Illinois November 8 , 1987 - 1990 Presidential Citation for Outstanding Service to Utah State University . Logan , Utah , October 25 , 1990 - 1994 Cyril Magnin Award for Distinguished Service in Photography . Presented by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce - 1996 Lifetime Achievement Award . Womens Caucus for Art . California Regional Chapter , Presented at Mills College , Oakland , March 30 , 1996 - 1997 Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters . The Academy of Art , San Francisco , June 1 , 1997 - 2003 Lucie Awards for achievement in fine art Solo exhibitions . - 1936 : Jake Zeitlin Gallery , Los Angeles - 1936 : Pacific Institute of Music and Art , Los Angeles , Eye Behind the Camera - 1938 : P.M . Gallery , New York - 1956 : Institute for Cultural Relations , Mexico City - 1986 : San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The Eternal Body - 2014 : Peter Fetterman Gallery The Eternal Nude Collections . Bernhards work is held in the following permanent collections : - Indianapolis Museum of Art , Indiana - J . Paul Getty Museum , Los Angeles , California - Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago , Illinois - Museum of Photographic Arts ( MOPA ) , San Diego , California - Portland Museum of Art , Oregon - San Jose Museum of Art , California - Minneapolis Institute of Art - International Photography Hall of Fame , St.Louis , Missouri