Inventory Project

Ruth Bernhard Archive, Princeton University Art Museum. © Trustees of Princeton University

Currently not on view

Life Savers, from the portfolio Ten Photographs: 1930–1976,

1930

Ruth Bernhard, 1905–2006; born Berlin, Germany; died San Francisco, CA
x1991-3.1
Through careful arrangement and the use of raking light, Bernhard turns pieces of mass-produced candy into a meditation on abstract form. Life Savers launched Bernhard’s commercial career in New York, intriguing Vogue's art director, who arranged for its publication in Advertising Art in 1931. Soon after, Bernhard began to garner assignments in advertising and industrial-design photography.

Information

Title
Life Savers, from the portfolio Ten Photographs: 1930–1976
Dates

1930

Maker

Ruth Bernhard

Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
19.1 x 23.4 cm. (7 1/2 x 9 3/16 in.) mount: 40.6 x 50.8 cm. (16 x 20 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of the artist
Object Number
x1991-3.1
Place Made

North America, United States, California, Berkeley, Nichol Press

Inscription
Signed in graphite, on mount below image bottom right: Ruth Bernhard In graphite, verso top left: Lifesavers 1930 / Ruth Bernhard
Culture
American
Type
photographs, gelatin silver prints, black-and-white photographs
Techniques
gelatin silver process, dry mounting
Subject
dots, circles (plane figures), geometric patterns, shadows, candy

Given to the Princeton University Art Museum by Ruth Bernhard (1905–2006).

Life Savers

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