A dangerous thing

Poetry. Photographer. Widely known as an important twentieth century American photographer, Ruth-Marion Baruch also turned her remarkable eye inward to explore through her poetry the depths of human suffering. Her poems, written for the most part in the 1950s and 1960s, have remained unpublished until now. This collection gives voice to this powerful, at times awesome, figure. "Hers is an honest alternative to the easy sentimentality of half-truths. In view of the prevailing darkness of her vision, it is remarkable how life-affirming her clear and forthright declarations are..."--Mark Linenthal. Originally born in Germany, Baruch spent her life in America, where she studied with Ansel Adams, Minor White, Homer Page and Edward Weston.

Photographer and poet Ruth-Marion Baruch was born on June 15, 1922 in Berlin, Germany. She is believed to have received the first Master of Fine Arts in Photography from Ohio University in 1945, writing her thesis on Edward Weston. She attended the first class at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco, devoted to photography, where she also met her future husband, the photographer Pirkle Jones. She studied with Ansel Adams, Minor White, Homer Page and Edward Weston. Her photographs have been exhibited around the U.S., in places such as the De Young Museum, San Francisco; the Lost Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Amon Carter Museum, Ft. Worth, Texas.