* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
John Bernhard was born in Switzerland and traveled around North America extensively before finally settling in Houston, Texas.
The prevailing themes of his work are climate change and planet pollution. Bernhard uses NASA archive images taken by astronauts from the International Space Station and adjusts their contrast and the brightness. Then, he superimposes portraits of children he has taken himself. The contrast between their faces and these perilous landscapes is intended to convey his message about the way we are mistreating our planet.
Bernhard has been a photographer for over two decades now and continues to devote all his energy to bringing them together to enhance the meaning of his photographs by way of visual interplay. He has authored seven monographs, including Nudes Metamorphs, Nicaragua, Diptych, Evanescence, Drift, China. His most recent book, Body Work, is a retrospective on nudes.
His work has been exhibited nationwide and in Europe. It has been featured in numerous publications and was included in Body Work, a permanent collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts curated by Christian Peterson: Most recently Bernhard staged a retrospective of his work at the Musée des Suisses dans le Monde in Geneva.
