Ruth Bernhard at 100
November 2, 2005 – January 28, 2006

In honor of her 100th birthday, the Scott Nichols Gallery featured a showing from a selection of Ruth Bernhard’s most iconic images. These photographs represent a woman who has been an integral part of Bay Area photography throughout the last five decades.

Ruth Bernhard was born in Berlin, Germany in 1905. Along with her father, she immigrated to the United States in 1927. Ruth made her home in New York City where she began a career as an advertising and illustration photographer. In 1935, while on a trip to California, Ruth met photographer Edward Weston. This meeting was “lightning in darkness,” an encounter that would change her viewpoint and allow her to see that photography could be a personal and powerful form of fine art. The following year, Bernhard moved out to California to study under Edward Weston.

By 1953, Bernhard settled in San Francisco. With photographers such as Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and Imogen Cunningham actively working in the Bay Area, photography was at its height. During this period, Bernhard’s work helped to shape the idea of what it meant to be an artistic photographer.

Ruth became most widely known for the images she made of the female nude, which are considered masterpieces in the photographic medium. The commonplace was another fond subject for Ruth, allowing her to take her intense reactions from daily experiences and make even the most simple, every day object illuminating. Her interpretations of these subjects are sensual and romantic, allowing one to find beauty in things we may normally fail to see.

To celebrate her 100th birthday, The Scott Nichols Gallery will be showing Ruth’s most iconic images, from female nudes to still life and surrealist work. The current show encompasses the breadth of work that Ruth produced during the last seven decades, allowing viewers to see a wide selection of Ruth’s photographic accomplishments.

Perspective II, 1967


Lifesavers, 1930


Apple Tree, 1970