'Uncommon Beauty'

You may recall that the last exhibit at FMCC's Perrella Gallery that piqued my interest (at least as far as this blog is concerned), featured Jonathan Singer's vivid flower photography.

The work of another photographer, one with a different and darker vision, is set to open this Friday at the Perrella.  Bill DeLanney, a native of Corpus Christi, Texas, and now a resident of upstate New York, uses a pinhole camera to capture landscapes and moods that bring to mind vacant buildings, graveyards, fallow fields, Richard Russo characters and the grittier sections of Gloversville.

The artist's statement on DeLanney's Web site is pleasingly terse: "I want my photographs to take me to another place."

I'm not sure I'd want literally to be taken to some of the places depicted in his images, as many of them feel like places I've been -- places I might drive past on my way home from work, whistling --- but I can't wait to check out the exhibit.

"Uncommon Beauty in the Commonplace" will open with a reception at 7 p.m. Friday at the Perrella Gallery . It will run through March 13.