Rita Bernstein

(All Photos By Rita Bernstein)

I fell for these photos the moment I saw them. Romantic, dreamy, far away things, though not really. Simply everyday scenes just out of reach. I wrote to the photographer, Rita Bernstein, right away to talk about the pictures and to tell her of my appreciation. Ms. Bernstein was kind enough to write back and tell me something about her process. She prints her images on handmade Japanese Gampi paper that she coats with a photo emulsion. The paper is thin and delicate and, I think not so easy to work with. The scanned images are beautiful, but I know that they do not begin to approach the quality of the actual work itself. She makes prints in two sizes, 7x7 and 10x10, in editions of fifteen. You can query her about the prices.

Gray, humid days that pass for southern winter. In this flat light, I miss the brilliance of those sharp-lined shadows. I am gray enough without gray days, but there are plenty of opportunities for brilliance if I could only be so. It is simply that, like the days, I too have lost contrast.

You can get to know so much about a person by the photos s/he presents. For days now, I have been envying the life Ms. Bernstein shows us in pictures.