Ruth Bernhard Quotes

The human body represents to me the same universal innocence, timelessness and purity of all seed pods, suggesting the mother as well as the child, the parental as well as the descendant, conceived according to nature's longings.

Each time I make a photograph I celebrate the life I love and the beauty I know and the happiness I have experienced. All my photographs are made like that responding to my intuition ... After all these years, I am still motivated by the radiance that light creates when it transforms an object into something magical. What the eye sees is an illusion of what is real. The black-and-white image is yet another transformation. What exactly exists, we may never know.

I have no regrets about my work. To be a photographer was a gift of the gods. I can't imagine anything that would have been better.

I learned early on that if I was to get attention, I would have to be charming. Even the models I've photographed are often like that. Some of them are not beautiful. But, if you catch them in the right light, they glow.

If you are not willing to see more than is visible, you won't see anything.

To indicate the ideal proportion and reveal sculptural mass and the dominating spirit is my goal.

I never took a photograph. Instead, I became a good listener.

I feel that is more important than my work, the influence I have on my students.

I think of the nudes as seed pods, like flowers or grasses. They are universal bodies.

If you can't make the image bigger or more important than what you see, then don't push the button

I look at ordinary objects, and I see things that other people don't see. That's why I'm a photographer.

If youre not interested in life, then photography has no meaning

Every day I am aware of the flow and constant change; perhaps I am at the edge of discovering what more our bodies might be able to teach about the spirit of life. At least, I am always exploring and trying to understand our relationship to the whole universe.

To me ... San Francisco is an ideal city, intellectually stimulating and naturally beautiful. The oceans and forests are close enough to refresh the spirit; the architecture is always exciting.

Light is my inspiration. My photographic images search for dimensions that words cannot touch- the result of intense responses to personal experiences. I do not wish to "record," but rather to touch upon the illusive meanings which I perceive and try to comprehend in this limitless universe.

I never look for a photograph. The photograph finds me and says, I'm here! and I say, Yes, I see you. I hear you.

I always said 'yes' to everything.

I always say yes to everything because I always feel that whatever comes my way, life meant for me.

Everything I do is a metaphor of the universal order.

I allowed life to give me presents. And everything just sort of happened the way it was supposed to happen. I did not pursue anything. It more or less pursued me.

I had a natural feeling for sculpture, and the nudes are my sculpture.

For me, the creation of a photograph is experienced as a heightened emotional response, most akin to poetry and music, each image the culmination of a compelling impulse I cannot deny. Whether working with a human figure or a still life, I am deeply aware of my spiritual connection with it. In my life, as in my work, I am motivated by a great yearning for balance and harmony beyond the realm of human experience, reaching for the essence of oneness with the Universe.

I feel that everything has to come from the heart, and it cannot come from the intellect.

There is nothing unimportant in the universe.

I expect photographs to find me. I never thought of looking for them. I instinctively put them there. My intellect had nothing to do with it.

It is so basic. A human being is an innocent part of nature. Our civilization has distorted this universal quality that allows us to feel at home in our skin. Other animals have coats that they accept, but the human race has yet to come to terms with being nude.

I'm no snapshot artist. I make very careful choices always, even if I'm using a 35mm camera.

I understood the craft of photography when done by an artist is art.

When I was young, anywhere I would go in Germany, I would see my father's posters. Everyone knew about him. And he had many friends who were artists who were also quite famous. So, for me, it seemed very natural to be an artist and be known.

There is no such thing as taking too much time, because your soul is in that picture.