Ruth Bernhard Quotations

The ground we walk on, the plants and creatures, the clouds above constantly dissolving into new formations - each gift of nature possessing its own radiant energy, bound together by cosmic harmony.

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

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

I never question what to do, it tells me what to do. The photographs make themselves with my help.

Everything I do is a metaphor of the universal order.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I've always photographed beauty, but I've never been beautiful myself.

If I have chosen the female form in particular, it is because beauty has been debased and exploited in our sensual 20th century.

It seems a perfectly normal thing to be 95.

My quest, through the magic of light and shadow, is to isolate, to simplify, and to give emphasis to form with the greatest clarity.

Seeing comes from the inside, from the heart, from life's experiences.

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

To raise, to elevate, to endorse with timeless reverence the image of woman has been my mission.

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 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.

I was a very, very careful printer when I used 8-by-10 film. I probably spent more time on printing than anything else. The more the prints were appreciated, the more time I spent on them.

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.

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.

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.

Photography is art when it's used by an artist.

Never ever say the word shoot when you are taking a picture with a camera because a camera is not a violent weapon.

My quest, through the magic of light and shadow, is to isolate, to simplify and to give emphasis to form with the greatest clarity. To indicate the ideal proportion, to reveal sculptural mass and the dominating spirit is my goal.

What the human eye sees is an illusion of what is real. The black and white image transforms illusions into another reality.

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.

You have to follow your instinct all the time. Otherwise you don't make it.

Remember God likes us best when we are flying by the seats of our pants,

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.

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.

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.

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.

Often I have struggled for days to get the image of the photograph to overlap the spirit I see. It is an awesome responsibility, and a lonely one.

#1 Never Get Used to Anything.

I always said 'yes' to everything.

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.

Everything is one and I am one with it.

There is nothing unimportant in the universe.

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.

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

Woman has been the target of much that is sordid and cheap, especially in photography. To raise, to elevate, to endorse with timeless reverence the image of woman, has been my mission.

Light is my inspiration, my paint and brush. It is as vital as the model herself. Profoundly significant, it caresses the essential superlative curves and lines. Light I acknowledge as the energy upon which all life on this planet depends.

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

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

A person cannot learn to be a photographer. He can only cultivate what he already has. I try to make people aware that they have something very precious to cultivate.

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

Fall in love. Every day. With everything. With life. If you can fall in love, you can be a photographer. I think that is absolutely essential.

If you are not passionately devoted to an idea, you can make very pleasant pictures but they won't make you cry.