Adams photographs on display

Tuesday, June 17, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

This exhibit is the first Las Vegas showing of the 20-by-24-inch contact print photographs taken by Adams during the year before his death in 1993. The large-format camera Adams commissioned and used for these photographs is also on exhibit.

Gary Adams established the Mojave Desert Photographic Project in 1987 and had the 20-by-24 view camera built to fulfill it.

"Such a camera would produce prints large enough to do justice to the scale of the land and (would be) of a quality that would preserve the purity of light on the land," Adams wrote.

Seven platinum and 19 silver contact prints produced from the 20-by-24-inch negatives shot by Adams show images of the Mojave Desert with a clarity and detail achievable only with such a large camera. Joshua trees near Searchlight, cottonwoods in Zion National Park, a sun-bleached arroyo in Death Valley -- these desert views illustrate Adams' words: "I am a photographer of the land. When I present a photograph it is my hope that the observer will soon become a participant and mentally step into the scene while ignoring the edges of the print."

Adams moved to Las Vegas in 1978 to serve as a cardiac rehabilitation specialist with the University Medical Center. He was also an associate professor at the University of Nevada School of Medicine.

In 1988, his skill as a photographer led to his appointment to the faculty of UNLV as curator of photography for the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Natural History. From his home in Las Vegas, he traveled and photographed the Southwest, especially the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park and the Mojave Desert. After Adams' death from cancer in 1993, the Gary Adams Foundation was established to continue the large-format photography project.

"Gary Adams: Mojave Desert Photographs" is open to the public from Saturday through Sept. 21 at the Nevada State Museum & Historical Society, 700 Twin Lakes Drive in Lorenzi Park. The museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $2 for adults, and free to children under 18 and museum members. Call 486-5205 for more information.