Bruce Bernard (21 March 1928–29 March 2000) was an English picture editor, writer and photographer. He wrote for the Sunday Times and the Independent and photographed many influential artists in a career lasting nearly 40 years. He left the Sunday Times and joined The Independent where he wrote for the paper's magazine. He wrote Vincent By Himself, about the painter Vincent Van Gogh. The book juxtaposed Van Gogh's paintings and drawings and featured excerpts from the letters to the painter's brother, Theo Van Gogh. He also frequently wrote short articles under pseudonyms, including Joe Hodges and Deirdre Pugh, for the Independent. Writing for The Independent, the columnist Adrian Searle commented: '[Bernard] had a shrewd, passionate eye, and was possessed of one of the most acute bullshit detectors I have ever encountered.' In 1994 Bernard curated a photographic exhibition for the Barbican Centre gallery. His portraits included those of Leigh Bowery, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, and Euan Uglow. The photographer John Riddy opined that 'Bernard's portraits of British artists are the only one's [sic] to escape cliché. In 1999 he put the finishing touches to the Bruce Bernard Photography Collection for the James Moores Foundation. The Victoria and Albert Museum held an exhibition of 100 photographs chosen by Bruce Bernard. An accompanying book 100 photographs, A Collection by Bruce Bernard was published by Phaidon Press in 2002.
