An Artscope post by Oliver reminded again me how much I’ve fallen away from appreciating the magnificence of photography.

In the following photo link, Diana Klute captures a paddleboarder off the Cape Verde Islands as nature sends the sea and spray to create a pointillist effect worthy of George Seurat’s brush. <p>Source: <a href=”https://artscope.de/2017/03/01/oliver-5/”>Oliver</a></p&gt;

In an era where words in traditional news reports are dubbed fake news and lies are portrayed as “alternate facts,” the beauty and truth found in works of outstanding photography communicate in blessed silence far from the corrupt yammering that so dominates our lives in North America and sends its shockwaves around the world.

Honest connectivity and intuited communications rather than loud words pushed at me were much on my mind during a recent visit to the Art Gallery of Ontario.

My expectations for the sole North American showing of 80 works by Georgia O’Keeffe organized by Tate Modern soared as high as the skyscrapers and hills painted by “the mother of American Modernism.”

I hoped to touch the deep and personal connection O’Keeffe imbued in her depictions of landscapes, architecture and nature.

I found her early and much imitated works of flowers and nature carried the same power they must have when she exploded onto the American art scene but, strangely, it wasn’t O’Keeffe’s work that inspired my most profound feelings.

The exhibition takes in O’Keeffe’s relationships with renowned photographers of the time including Ansel Adams, Paul Strand and O’Keeffe’s husband Alfred Stieglitz. The juxtaposition of her art next to photographs of the same scene or structure give context and contrast and, in my view, heightens the understanding and therefore the appreciation for both art forms.

As a semi-serious dabbler in photography decades past, I retain a love for the truth that a lens can reveal. On this occasion, an Ansel Adams photograph I’d seen in art books, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico leapt to life in the photographer’s handcrafted print as dramatically as standing at the epicenter of hurricane rather than viewing its snapshot.

I was stunned by its power, the image and the technical proficiency. A bit of research revealed

For reasons unknown, I’ve not included photographic exhibitions when considering need-to-see art shows. Ansel Adams has cured me of the oversight.