Image: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca
The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University is presenting ‘Ansel Adams: Photographs from the Collection’, a selection of the photographer’s landscapes that remains on view through September 27. The presentation focuses on iconic views of the western United States and is positioned as a complement to ‘Blazing Light: Photographs by Mimi Plumb’, displayed in an adjacent gallery.
The announcement provides no list of individual photographs or details about the number of works included. It describes the presentation as a selection drawn from the museum’s collection, placing Adams’s landscape images alongside a major exhibition devoted to a contemporary photographer’s sustained engagement with the American West and the human-altered landscape.
Adams’s photographs are widely associated with the representation of the western United States, and the Johnson Museum’s announcement specifically characterizes the works on view as iconic landscapes. The display therefore offers a focused presentation of a collection area rather than a newly announced acquisition or a large-scale retrospective. No curator is identified for the Adams selection in the available announcement.
Its proximity to ‘Blazing Light’ creates a direct photographic comparison without making the two exhibitions a single project. Organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, ‘Blazing Light’ brings together three bodies of work by Berkeley-based artist Mimi Plumb: ‘The White Sky’, ‘Landfall’ and ‘The Golden City’, and ‘The Reservoir’. The exhibition surveys five decades of Plumb’s photography, including her work on the landscape of California and the western United States.
The museum describes Plumb’s project as a study of the effects of climate change, unbridled capitalism and looming military conflict. Her photographs, made primarily in gritty black and white, examine the land, built environments and urban life. At the Johnson Museum, the exhibition is installed in the Gold, Schaenen and Class of 1953 Galleries on Floor 2L, while the Adams presentation is described only as being in an adjacent gallery.
The two presentations are part of the Johnson Museum’s wider exhibition programme and collection activity. The museum says it holds more than 40,000 works from around the world and provides free admission. It is located at 114 Central Avenue in Ithaca, New York, on the Cornell University campus.
‘Ansel Adams: Photographs from the Collection’ is on view through September 27. ‘Blazing Light: Photographs by Mimi Plumb’ is scheduled for June 13 through September 27, 2026.
