Ruth Bernhard is best known for her black and white photographs of nudes, still lifes, and natural forms. She was born in Germany before emigrating to New York in 1927 to join her father, graphic designer Lucian Bernhard. It is while living in New York that Bernhard bought her first camera and became close friends with photographer Berenice Abbott. She was heavily involved with the lesbian sub-culture of the New York arts community and around 1934 began making posed, studio photographs of women in the nude. 

Two Forms is one of Bernhard’s most famous images. In this work, a Black woman and white woman, who were lovers, are pressed closely together. Bernhard worked exclusively in black and white and was meticulous about properly lighting her subjects. Of her models, Bernhard once said, ​“Some of them are not beautiful. But, if you catch them in the right light, they glow.”