This photo exhibit by ImageMakers explains what the photographers had in mind when creating their work.

Of the 66 current members of the fine art photography club ImageMakers, 35 submitted three photos each for this exhibit, titled Frame of Mind. The jury, which included local experts like Center for Photographic Art Executive Director Anna Jastrab, then picked one photo by each artist. The photographers were asked to write nine lines about what they had in mind while working on this one photo.

“It’s an unusual exhibit,” says photographer and poet Robert Nielsen, who writes a poem for each photo he is working on (for more on Nielsen’s other creative endeavors, see story, p. 26).

ImageMakers was started in 1996 by Richard Garrod and inspired by the rich photographic tradition of Monterey County (think Ansel Adams, Edward Weston). Local photographers started presenting their works in their living rooms until they became too popular to accommodate growing audiences.

“The group has been open to new ways,” Nielsen says. “There’s the sense of adventure and some cutting-edge work.”

Despite the stereotype that photography is the domain of men, one-third of ImageMakers’ members are women. That means less concentration on the mechanics of photography, and more of seeing photography first and foremost as art. The group meets each month in Monterey, in the McGowan House by St. James Episcopal Church. In addition to photo exhibits, the group organizes poetry outings, for example in Moss Landing.

Frame of Mind was curated by Robert Reese of the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts and includes work by Kenneth Parker, Mary Aiu and Gary Lopez.

Nielsen’s photo is one of the most striking in the exhibit. “Winter Light, Point Sur” is a seaside landscape taken from the safety of a simple cottage where poppyseed flowers fill a vase.

His lines go: “Light / time / standing still / winter morning / edge of the world // Dry Flowers / the past / when / people life laughter / filled this room // Now empty / children gone // What remains / a picket fence / an ocean / tomorrow / the long flat / wide horizon.”

FRAME OF MIND opening reception 5-7pm Friday, Jan. 12. Meet the artists 5-7pm Saturday, Jan. 27. Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, Fourth Avenue and Guadalupe Street, Carmel. carlcherrycenter.org. On display until Feb. 17.