BANGOR.- University of Maine Museum of Art presents the work of renowned contemporary photographer Kenro Izu titled Kenro Izu: Sacred Places. The show until July 1, 2006. Kenro Izu: Sacred Places showcases a magnificent ensemble of more than 50 of Izu's photographs of spiritual landmarks in Asia, the Pacific Islands, Egypt, and Europe, many of which have never before been exhibited. Clark Worswick, curator of photography for the Peabody Essex Museum, has long been a supporter and advocate of Izu's art. He says the Japanese-born photographer works in the tradition of both the great 19th century landscape photographers and early 20th century pictorialists. As such, his work is right at home at the Peabody Essex, which holds the largest collection of 19th century photographs of Asia.

"With Izu you have a photographer who is working against the grain in contemporary photography in a classical form. I think he is one of the greatest photographers working in the world today," says Worswick.

Among Izu's most renowned images are those of the ancient Angkor temples in Cambodia. The photographs capture the stunningly beautiful Khmer architectural monuments and the natural landscape surrounding—and in some case destroying— them. These select photographs were first shown to the public in 1998 in a special exhibition at the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts, Kenro Izu: Light over Ancient Angkor. Izu's photography of Angkor also brought him close to the suffering of Cambodian children whose limbs had been shattered by land mines. He helped establish a free-care hospital for those children, and has supported it with proceeds from the sale of his photographs through an organization he set up called Friends without a Border.