RUBEN ON RODIN

ERNESTINE RUBEN (1931-)

Having focused on the human figure for two decades, photographer Ernestine Ruben decided to make a change. What she sought were “inanimate bodies latent with life and electricity.” What she found was the sculpture of Auguste Rodin. Ruben had, of course, seen sculptures by Rodin before, but on a visit to the Musèe Rodin in the summer of 1993 she was “struck by the bright emergence of bodies and faces” as a mysterious beam of sunlight seemed to guide her from statue to statue. Never quite certain whether the “sculpture glowed from within or absorbed the meager amount of light from outside,” she was fascinated by the way Rodin’s sculptures seem to emerge from their material as though coming to life. Since that encounter, Ruben has maintained an ongoing dialogue with the great sculptor. The photographs included in Ruben’s upcoming exhibition at Stanford University, and reproduced in this book, offer a survey of this intense and thoughtful conversation. Ruben on Rodin is our second publication on work of Ernestine Ruben. Her photographs have been exhibited internationally, and are housed in major collections in the United States and abroad. Essays by Bernard Barryte and Hélène Pinet.