A bomb explodes over the USS Alabama, leaving a chrysanthemum of smoke in its wake as a small, delicate plane flies away.

The black-and-white photograph, taken in 1921, is a striking image of the warship. But this warship never went to war. Like the high-pitched wail that interrupts your favorite sitcom from time to time, the dramatic explosion was only a test. At the time of the photo, the U.S. military was trying to see if airborne bombs would be as effective as shells. Clearly, they got the job done.

“Bombing of the USS Alabama” is one of 100 photographs on view at the University of Maine Museum of Art in “A Maritime Album.” Museum staff took over the permanent collection to make room for the entire show, on view through April 2.

For the exhibit, John Szarkowski, longtime director of photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and Richard Benson, dean of Yale University’s art school, examined the collection of the Mariners Museum in Newport News, Va. From the museum’s archives of more than 600,000 photographs, they culled 100 photographs of historic, artistic and narrative significance.

“The work is pretty wide-ranging in terms of time, from the beginning of photography to the 1950s,” UMMA director Wally Mason said, pausing to point out details in a small image of an airplane taking off from a ship’s runway. “The history of photography to some degree is parallel to the progress of boats and sea vessels. The developments of these large, mechanical objects are actually chronicled when it happened as opposed to us going back in time and saying, ‘This is incredible.'”

Part documentation, part history lesson, part art show, “A Maritime Album” will appeal to a wide range of audiences, which was one of the reasons why Mason chose this exhibit.

“They’re aesthetic and they were chosen by a fine-art curator, but they bridge over to where they become something else at the same time,” Mason said. “A lot of folks come in here with no relationship to art. … A lot of Mainers are connected to the sea, emotionally or physically, so that seemed like another reason to do that.”

Szarkowski, a photographer and curator, is considered one of the most influential figures in contemporary photography. Benson, also a photographer, is known as a master of photographic reproduction. But the men, who have been friends for decades, have more than the camera in common. They also share a love for the sea.

“The history of the technology of the sea, and the politics and sociology and poetry of the sea, would comprise almost a history of man,” Szarkowski writes in the introduction to the book that accompanies the exhibition.

He continues: “Photography describes only a thin chronological slice of the story of man and the sea, but that slice represents a period extraordinarily rich with the overlapping of old and revised and radically new technologies.”

Those technologies come to light in “A Maritime Album,” from a square-rigged ship’s bow “plunging down into a sea” to a fleet of Volkswagens awaiting transport in a dockside lot. Though several of the images were taken by famous “art” photographers, many were taken by curious, unknown bystanders.

“The photos are anywhere from professional to amateur and I’m not so sure that it matters,” said Mason, himself a photographer known for his surreal nighttime images. “Everyone gets a silver bullet once in a while. For some of these amateurs, it’s their one moment.”

And Szarkowski and Benson describe each moment in detail – the text that accompanies each image is often as compelling as the photograph itself. If you go, be sure to set aside a chunk of time to take it all in.

“There’s just so much to look at,” Mason said.

On March 28, Szarkowski and Benson will give a gallery talk at the University of Maine Museum of Art. Because space is limited to 100 people, museum members will be given first refusal for tickets. For information on the talk or to learn about becoming a museum member, call 561-3350.