Why does WATER fascinate?  How has it been portrayed in nature by three of the finest photographers
who have been dedicated to life, light, form, and photography for communication?

Why was the love that Americans poured out for the work and person of Ansel Adams so enduring and perhaps unparalleled for a visual artist?  Perhaps this special esteem is because they ‘”sensed that he believed in something that they believed in; not the high sentiment of conservation, or the science of ecology, or the art of photography, but the deeply romantic idea that the great vistas and microcosmic details of the wilderness could be seen as metaphor for freedom and heroic aspiration."  John Szarkowski.  Photography speaks to us and invites us to look more deeply, to care in a fresh and personal way.

Ansel Adams (1902-1984), Ernest Brooks II (photographer, diver, educator), and Dorothy Kerper Monnelly (photographer, activist citizen, teacher) share devotion and true knowledge of their special places-- an integrity of place.  All were born and or spent the greater part of their lives on the coasts of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, have a keen sense of Beauty, community, value of the intrinsic qualities in nature, are gentle, passionate, kind, understand how important water is to all life and are parents.  They care. All are multi-faceted amateurs.  We glimpse water on Earth through the eyes and hearts of Adams, Brooks and Monnelly. . .