PHOTO REVIEW : A Retrospective of Ruth Bernhard

The International Gallerie of Photographic Art, not to be confused with La Jolla’s defunct Photography Gallery, is alive and showing art.

Not superior art, perhaps, but works by a respected, if second-magnitude, photographer. Titled “A 55 Year Retrospect,” the exhibit showcases the still lifes and nude studies of Ruth Bernhard.

Bernhard, 83, has a lengthy record as a commercial and fine-art photographer. Recognized for her nudes, she is a respected lecturer and teacher, who has made her home in the San Francisco Bay area since 1953.

Bernard’s best prints express the lyrical beauty of the female form under dramatic studio lighting. In her image, “Perspective II,” she applied light and shadow to achieve a classic study in perspective with the nude human form.

Her strongest nudes contrast black with white, using a white model against a black background or black and white models together. One of the best works in the exhibit is “Sand Dune,” a 1967 photograph. Bernhard positioned camera angle, light and model so that the model’s body appears as abstract as the waves of a gently rolling dune.

As much as one would like to report otherwise, most of the nudes in this exhibit lack the spark of originality. One can’t help but compare what is on the wall with the timeless nudes and still lifes of Edward Weston, who was a major influence on Bernhard.

Among the still lifes, “Shell and Driftwood,” from 1943, is an impressive study in textures. Bernhard makes a sensuous contrast of the ragged edge of the driftwood with the smooth curves of a sea shell.

The contrast is less apparent in her picture of a passion flower and a piece of dried bone. You see what the photographer was going after--swollen flower petals juxtaposed with desiccated bone. But visually, the print fails to come off.

Even though Bernhard was a friend of photographic masters such as Weston, Imogen Cuningham, Dorothea Lange, Minor White, and Ansel Adams, her photographs lack the compositional snap, strong lighting and imaginative brilliance that caused those photographers to be acclaimed.

With the exception of a handful of the studio images, much of Bernhard’s lighting is bland and flabby. It lacks decisive shadowing.

Her 1945 image of a nude model reclining on the beach with the surf foaming around her resembles commercial stock from a Hollywood film archive. Her photograph of a nude woman standing, back to the camera, on a wooden deck, is notably unremarkable, raising the question of why Bernhard even included this forgetable photograph in the show.

However, this exhibit offers a chance to compare the originality of Bernhard’s work with that of local photographer Eric Blau. Blau’s recent muted and mottled images of models have much more creative spark. Blau’s work (reviewed in Calendar May 10), is on exhibit at the Photo West/Brad Lemery Gallery downtown. Both exhibits are worth a seeing.

“A 55 Year Retrospect” of the photographs of Ruth Bernhard continues through July 12 at the International Gallerie of Photographic Art, 1237 Prospect, Suite W, in La Jolla.