Ruth Bernhard - Book Review

I have been reading Ruth Bernhard - Between Art and Life for the last few weeks, I don't get a whole lot of down time except my breaks at work, and just finished it today. First off I must say that that Ruth Bernhard is one of my favorite photographers...her, Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham.  You may notice theme throughout all three of their work...elegant nudes which focused on the line, light and beauty of the model. Anyhow, I am distracting myself with thinking about their images and not continuing to tell you about the book that I read.

I really enjoyed getting to read more about Ruth Bernhard's life as a photographer in San Francisco, of course she was in many other locations as well, but I really latch on to the San Francisco part with living in the Bay Area. She was an amazing photographer and, from people's reviews, she was a great teacher. Sometimes you see all the work a photographer has created and you forever about all the things that they had to go through in their lives, that they also have tough times just like you and I do. 

Ruth grew up in a family that didn't seem to care to much about her one way or the other. She had a sister who wasn't told that Ruth was her sister until she was like 18 or something like that. Later in life she suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning and that resulted in her not being able to print her work anymore and had a harder time focusing to take photographs. Then there were the great opportunities that she had like meeting Edward Weston and Ansel Adams and countless other ground breaking photographers. 

There are so many great things about this book that I don't even have the words to tell you everything about it. Obviously the best way to know everything about the book is to read it yourself! I very much enjoyed this book and I actually think this is the second time I have read it, last time would have been in grad school so I would have been busy then too. I found this book to be quite inspirational and really wish that I could have met her and taken some of her classes. 


I love her work and have included one of my favorite images, which of course is the cover of The Eternal Body, and her most popular image.

Photo: Ruth Bernhard, “Perspective II, 1967″

A Garden Variety

Three images for this week. You have seen Whirling Dervish before but I was working through the new images that Farmboy Fine Art has just picked up. I picked these three images because of the color connection.

A Fire Inside

 Polar Aurorae

Whirling Dervish

Better late than never

Cloak and Dagger
© Anna Chipman

So here it is a month since I have posted. I was so proud of myself earlier this year with keeping up with blogging every week. August was a busy month for us with Myles birthday, both in Alameda and in Phoenix, and then one thing after another came up. Tuesday evenings come around and I think alright...tomorrow I need to post a new image...and then the next thing I know it is Friday.

So I have worked up a new image to show you, even though I am supposed to post on Wednesdays, I am going to do it now so that I get back in my groove. Cloak and Dagger is an abstract photo of a lily. This image is one that Farmboy Fine Art has picked to be among the images that they sell of mine.