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Monterey Museum of Art (MMA) shows Modern Photography by Cunningham, Weston and Adams

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Sunday, 04 January 2009 02:29

Ansel Adams - Farm, farm workers, Mt. Williamson in background - Manzanar Relocation Center, California 

MONTEREY, CA - The Monterey Museum of Art (MMA) presents Cunningham, Weston and Adams: Modern Photography at the Museum, an exhibition featuring the works of early to mid-twentieth century photographers whose works explored natural and artificial forms. Selected from the Museum’s rich photography holdings, this exhibition, presented in the Bunny and Miller Outcalt Photography Gallery at the Pacific Street location, includes Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Ruth Bernhard and international figures such as Alexander Rodchenko. On view through 29th of March, 2009.

What is the artistry in a photograph? Some consider the Central Coast a haven for photography because of the beauty of the landscape, the seascape, the homescape and the light. Others credit the photographers who understand what it is about the beauty and what makes it so, who know how to capture the moment when the wave reaches its crest, the bird enters flight, the rose begins to blush and the light slips into the horizon.

Each artist brings to life, his or her own particular vantage and expression. No matter what he contributes during his time here, he takes his signature with him when he goes, leaving behind his mark, but not the ability to reproduce his original perspective.

Imogen Cunningham Margrethe Mather and Edward Weston, 1922Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham left us with a wealth of imagery through which to remember them and to respect and appreciate the power and majesty of the elements as they saw them.

“To live and work as a photographer in California is to necessarily confront the visual legacy of the great California photographers such as Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham. . .,” wrote Tim B. of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. “To have befriended and collaborated with these photographic luminaries is to also necessarily seek out one’s own pictorial strength and to effectively emerge from the long shadows of their public and visual reputations.”

About The Monterey Museum of Art

The Monterey Museum of Art is devoted to the art of California, photography, contemporary art and Asian art. The Museum was established in 1959 as a chapter of the American Federation of the Arts and has a permanent collection of 14,000 objects, which includes paintings, photographs, works on paper, Asian art and significant holdings of California artists such as Armin Hansen, William F. Ritschel, Edward Weston and Ansel Adams. The Monterey Museum of Art has two locations: 559 Pacific Street and 720 Via Mirada, Monterey, CA, 93940. The Museum is open Wednesday through Saturday, 11 am to 5 pm and Sunday 1 to 4 pm.  For more information, please visit www.montereyart.org or call 831.372.5477.

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