"How can our imaginations take on 'real life' qualities? Does light move, can the eye go beyond that which one sees? Do we feel the flow of life? In their entirety, my works offer a continuing reflection on human survival. I seek to make us aware of the sensuous character of body, spirit, nature, space, and material – of the interpenetration of the unnumbered dimensions of our environment and of the intersection of those dimensions in human life." - Ernestine Ruben

Ernestine Ruben lives and works in New York City and is an internationally known artist, who grew up surrounded by art and artists. She received degrees in the History of Art and Art Education, and has taught art to all ages for many years as well as creating a mentor group and has participated in many critiques.

She has photographed the human body with great emphasis on the human hand and applies her love of life to landscapes and architecture. Of great importance to her is the reference to human life and it’s interaction with our complexity of environments.

She has devoted her career to applying photographic concepts to other art forms with extensive experimentation and variety. After beginning with body images in silver, she expanded to fusing photography with dance performances, sculpture, glass, architectural mobiles, fashion, and papermaking. She also worked in old processes often combining them with new digital technology. Ruben continues to seek new directions and is currently studying the relationships between architectural construction, space, sound, and the visual image.

Her work is in many private and public collections including the University museums of Princeton, Stanford, Michigan, and the University of the Arts. It is also included in the Art Museums of Philadelphia, Houston, and Detroit as well as the Museum of Modern Art, the Maison Europeene de la Photographie and the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. She has had recent solo exhibitions and retrospectives in many museums and galleries. Her work has recently been featured at Photofest in Houston and Les Rencontres Internationales in Arles. Other collections include Merrill Lynch, Mercedes Benz, Princeton Medical Center, Johnson & Johnson, and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra Archives. She is a recipient of the New Jersey State Arts Council Fellowship.

Her work is a subject of eight monographs and can be found in many other publications. The latest book, "In Human Touch", won the award for the best photography book of 2002 by the International Publishers Association.

James Steward, Director of the Princeton University Museum of Art recently wrote, "Ruben's images inscribe themselves as amongst the most powerful and possibly the most enduring works of late 20^th century photography."

Watch Ruben discuss her work here.

Ruben's studio and gallery are now located at MANA CONTEMPORARY, Studio 468, at 888 Newark Avenue, Jersey City, NJ

Email Ernestine Ruben for appointments.