"Picturing Eden," on display now through March 22 at Cornell's Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, examines the many facets of paradise -- from a place of peaceful solace to one of absolute loneliness -- as seen through the photographer's lens.

Featuring more than 150 photographs, the exhibition was organized by the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester. It includes the work of 37 artists from six countries, from well-known photographers Sally Mann, Mike and Doug Starn and Adam Fuss to such emerging artists as Jo Whaley, Alec Soth and Lori Nix.

"While the garden provides us with a place to relax, play, contemplate and restore, it can also be a site of loneliness and despair -- a reminder of that original lost innocence," said Nancy Green, the Johnson Museum's Gale and Ira Drukier Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs. "The photographers in this exhibition are exploring the notions of the garden as a paradise, serving as nurturer, a vision of exquisite beauty or a powerful force -- and our attempt to capture this Eden."

Green will lead a tour of the exhibition on Thursday, March 5, at noon.

"Picturing Eden" highlights original lost innocence, the ongoing significance of a humanistic, culturally charged environment and its place in the history of art. Eden or paradise, a place of great or perfect happiness and satisfaction, is an ideal still sought today.

"As a mythic theme, Eden resonates across time and cultures and is charged with both political and environmental concerns," said Deborah Klochko, who guest-curated the original Eastman House exhibition in 2006. "Many of these photographs deal with the idea of the garden as a metaphor for good and evil, heaven and hell. 'Picturing Eden' focuses on the state of humankind after Eden -- paradise is no longer available to us, but from that moment on we have attempted to regain it."

An accompanying catalog features photographs from the exhibition, an essay by Klochko and a transcribed conversation about paradise and the visual image with Merry Foresta, director of the Smithsonian Photography Initiative; Louise Mozingo, a landscape architecture professor at the University of California-Berkeley; and award-winning author Rebecca Solnit.

For more information, visit http://www.museum.cornell.edu.