My Homage to Ruth Bernhard | Artistic Nude Photography

I don't know if you know who Ruth Bernhard is but if have any interest in photography I recommend you look her up. Not only was Bernhard an incredible photographer but she was also a pioneer in photography as well as one of the most interesting people I have ever read about. Ruth began photographing women in the nude around 1934....you can imagine the scandal! (insert *gasp* here). I am so drawn in by her work, especially her photographs of women in the nude. Bernhard had such a way of capturing the ultimate femininity in her subjects. The roundness of hips, the curves of the torso, the soft shadow of a breast....to me her photos are an endless roadmap of sensuality in it's most artistic sense. I especially appreciated her lighting, which always seems so secondary to the photo. Her photos draw you in right to softness of the subject, which was only enhanced by the warm and low lighting she used. Her work isn't so much magical to me as it is infinite; her images seem to go on forever, inspiring you to continue staring for every follicle, dimple and swerve before taking in the whole totality of her art. She is simply timeless.

I wanted to recreate a few of her photos with a little flare of my own (of course....wouldn't have it any other way, right??) and I plan to continue to infuse her influence into my Intimates work. I believe it to be a worthy direction to steer towards at this time.

Below is one of Bernhard's poses that has always just drawn me in. So this is my homage to Ruth Bernhard (more to come I'm sure). I hope I did her work justice, even on a small level.

For any of you interested, here is a site that shows the her original photograph of the pose below (middle, second row).