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.

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.

Ansel 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.”