Gina Caruso of the Honolulu Museum of Art is passionate about photography.

So much so that she temporarily switched hats from her regular film programming duties to become guest curator for the museum’s "The Living Mirror: Luminaries of 20th Century Modernist Photography," on exhibit through Aug. 12.

A longtime student of the medium and former photo editor for the Washington Post, Caruso is pleased to pre­sent a rare public showing of a small portion of the museum’s permanent photography collection.

"Over about a year’s time, I occasionally met with collections manager Courtney Brebbia to see what we had," Caruso said. "My original proposal was to do street photography, but I had no idea about the incredible 20th-century photographs we had in our collection. Some of them were originally donated in the 1930s and ’40s, and the museum’s previous curator of Western art, Jennifer Saville, did a great job in the ’80s in collecting more photographs. She had a good eye, and it was a good time for collecting because museums were starting to value photography more as an art form."

It was also a more time-consuming process decades ago, as the hours and days spent in the darkroom helped create these now-iconic photographs from such recognized masters as Edward Weston, Imo­gen Cunningham, Ansel Adams and Edward Steichen.

Many of the photos in the exhibit are familiar, having been reproduced as postcards, smaller prints and posters through the years. But they don’t match the experience of the photos’ full forms, all part and parcel of their history.

Their modernist nature is reflected in the shift of photography to a pictorial style all its own, with an emphasis on the photographic craft of lighting and print quality.

"All of the photos here are beautiful in their composition," Caruso said. "I arranged them such that it starts with how a photographer looks at a single image, then to two, then three objects contained in the frame."

Caruso said that there is a general mood of stillness in the exhibition.

"For example, the Ansel Adams landscape has a meditative quality to it. And I think, in comparison, people will be surprised with a rarely seen commercial piece of his that uses an arrangement of eggs and a milk bottle. You can see his whole approach of the printing process, the subtle shades of gray and gradation of light. It’s gorgeous."

Caruso is also pleased with the display of other valuable prints of such famous photographs as Weston’s "Nude, 1936," Steichen’s "The Pond — Moonrise" and Cunningham’s "Magnolia Blossom."

"How exciting to have them here in our collection," she said. "It’s like having Monets and Van Goghs."

Museum Director Stephan Jost is also happy with the quality of the collection.

Because it’s photography, he said, the exhibition becomes "so accessible to the public. It’s much easier than conceptual and abstract art. When you see a great photo and how it’s composed, it’s inspirational and makes it all the more relevant in these times of smartphone-driven photography."

Jost promises more photographs will be shown in the future, with a portrait exhibit scheduled for the fall.