EDWARD WESTON | RUTH BERNHARD

Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York, 1996

cf. Margaretta K. Mitchell, Ruth Bernhard: Between Art & Life (San Francisco, 2000), pp. 63, 65, and 81

Ruth Bernhard was introduced to Edward Weston through industrial designer Kem Weber. In her 2000 autobiography, Between Art and Life, Bernhard recounted her first meeting and portrait session with Weston in 1935: ‘Weston photographed me on the first visit. His portraits of me are absolutely me. As in all of his work, he wanted to allow the subject to speak, to keep himself out of it as much as possible. . . . In less than an hour, while we were talking, he took eighteen portraits of me. We developed the negatives together in the darkroom.’

Even more significant was the impact of her initial viewing of Weston’s photographs: ‘When I first saw Weston’s work, I burst into tears. It was a complete revelation. I had not taken photography seriously until then. His photography allowed me to accept my own work at a higher value. . . .’