Fragile Waters: Photographs by Ansel Adams, Ernest H. Brooks II, and Dorothy Kerper Monnelly

With California in its sixth year of drought, water conservation issues are at the forefront of political, social, legal, and artistic activism. Fragile Waters will celebrate this essential and precious resource and encourage dialog about water conservation through 117 black-and-white photographs by three artists whose work spans a century. Ansel Adams’s early prints, made from 8 x 10-inch glass plate negatives, are some of the most iconic images in the history of photography. His reputation as an artist is matched by his role as a founder of the modern conservation movement. Ernest H. Brooks II is a renowned underwater photographer and climate-change activist whose work has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, and other museums. Dorothy Kerper Monnelly has devoted her long career to landscape photography and conservation advocacy. She has received particular acclaim for her projects on marshes and ecosystems in Massachusetts. 

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.