Submitted by the San Juan Island Museum of Art

FRAGILE WATERS, a traveling fine art photography exhibition, opens Saturday, April 23, Earth Day weekend, and will run through September 5, 2016 at the San Juan Islands Museum of Art.

“Fragile Waters” is a powerful aesthetic and environmental statement, blending inspiring black and white photography by three renowned photographers; Ansel Adams, Ernest H. Brooks II, and Dorothy Kerper Monnelly, who feel a deep reverence for the marine environment and understand the integrity of place.

Water is essential to all life we know. Yet our oceans, rivers, lakes and other sources of water are in crisis. Extreme weather events, aquifer depletion, toxic contaminants, fracking, pollution, spills, ocean acidification, floods, desertification, and the impact of rising seawater, are just a few of the urgent issues that confront us.

The “Fragile Waters” exhibition was born out of these concerns. The 117 black-and-white photographs present a powerful collective statement. In technique and time these photographers span a century. These artists communicate the beauty and vitality of water, focusing on nature and engage the viewer in affirming the intrinsic aesthetic, emotional and essential life value of water.