See the people and places of Africa through the lens of Nebraska Wesleyan University alumna Betty Press.

Press is best known for her photographs taken in Africa when she lived and worked in Kenya as a freelance photojournalist. Now living in Hattiesburg, Miss., where she is an adjunct professor of photography at the University of Southern Mississippi, Press photographs the South as well as Mexico, Central America, Cuba, and Africa.

Press’ exhibition at Nebraska Wesleyan University is titled, “I Am Because We Are: African Wisdom in Image and Proverb,” which is also the title of her first photobook. For this project she was named the recipient of the 2012 Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters Award in photography.

The exhibit runs September 7 to October 21. An opening reception will be held Friday, September 7 from 4:30-7 p.m. in Elder Gallery, located in the Rogers Center for Fine Arts, 50th Street and Huntington Ave.

Press will be at Nebraska Wesleyan University on Thursday, September 20 as part of the university’s 125th anniversary kickoff. She will give a gallery talk and hold a book signing at 3:30 p.m. in Elder Gallery.

Elder Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m. The gallery is closed on Mondays. The exhibit is free and open to the public.