For his "Emigrant Lake" show at Silver Eye Center for Photography, Jeff Krolick took photos over four seasons in a boggy, thatched area that fringes the Oregon lake. Click photo for larger image.

"Emigrant Lake: Photographs by Jeff Krolick," the Fellowship 2005 exhibition at Silver Eye Center for Photography, is a handsome fit to the upscale sophisticated look of the newly renovated gallery.

Krolick was selected for the $5,000 award and solo exhibition from 264 national and international entries by juror Lesley A. Martin, executive editor, Aperture Books, New York (she'll lecture here Friday).

His 22 square-format colored photographs were taken over four seasons in a boggy, thatched area that fringes the Oregon lake, but they are more abstraction than landscape.

Krolick locates composition within sprawling brambles and legions of dried plant stems, integrating natural color as a painter would, sometimes subtly and sometimes stridently. Without horizons or other indicators of perspective, the images at first seem to occupy a flat plane, but soon draw the eye past countless layers of clearly defined detail into their centers.

In January, maroon seed clusters dangle from arched branches that droop toward mats of gray withering foliage, each occupying half the frame and filling it with washes of color. March brings monochromatic patterns of limbs, twigs and dry grasses.

Most painterly are the summer scenes taken at placid water's edge, enlivened with the vibrant shapes and colors of unusual plants and sunspots, where shadows and reflections play optical tricks in amber depths, and trunks dissolve into thick and thin black brush strokes.

Occasionally Krolick breaks format. The viewfinder lifts to include a trail and distant shrubs, producing an image that reads like an Impressionist painting. A vivid blue puddle in another shot is reminiscent of an Andy Goldsworthy intervention.

Learning that "Emigrant Lake" is not a pristine environment nestled in a mountain valley accessible only on foot, but, rather, an artificial lake that attracts hordes of recreational traffic annually, only heightens Krolick's accomplishment.

Within this context, the significance of his, and concomitantly all, discovery is heightened: The poetic enhancement of daily life is in the hands (eyes) of the beholder.

Honorable Mention

Honorable mentions were awarded to 10 photographers, and each is represented by one image selected by Martin from those submitted. Whereas the Fellowship imagery is of a natural environment, all of these show man's presence.

While some are potent on their own, others would benefit from presentation as part of the series they were conceived and shot within.

Yvonne Venegas and Rania Matar, for example, pursue fascinating issues of women and culture that are difficult to grasp in one picture. Seeing others of Deana Lawson's series would reveal whether the paper doll cut-and-paste aspect of the figure in "Frances" is repeated and thus part of the photographer's statement. Christine Gatti's visual journal appears somewhat trite, even at 144 montaged images, but would gain intensity alongside more of the 20,000 she took.

In comparison, Susan Bank's Cuban farm wife has a timeless quality that speaks volumes about age and rural life, while Christopher Sims' "Homefronts" series image of American soldiers variously dressed as Afghan fighters has gut-wrenching immediacy borne of daily headlines.

Exotic locales further enhance Elaine Ling's dramatic diptych "Gobi Interior, Gobi Desert, Mongolia" and Howard Henry Chen's fanciful Vietnamese amusement park. Also included are Jessica Todd Harper's sumptuous ad-like depiction of the jaded middle class and Steven B. Smith's atypical Vegas scape.

'Emigrant' programs

Tomorrow, 7 p.m., Gallery tour (free). Friday, 7 p.m., Lesley Martin on "50 years of Aperture" ($15, members $10, reservations recommended). Saturday, Martin reviews portfolios (fee, waiting list). Jan. 27-28, Workshop on publishing photography by Pittsburgh Magazine's Richard Kelly and David Rohm (fee, reservations required). Jan. 28, Poets Samuel Hazo and Richard St. John read excerpts from recent work. In collaboration with Pittsburgh Poetry Exchange (free).

Members' Galleries

The Members' Galleries hold unsung treasures. At Silver Eye through Feb. 4 are Richard Stoner's black and white studies of "Swift Water, Slack Water" and John Chakeres's abstract renderings of colorful Mexican out buildings. Five other artists exhibit at the online version on the Silver Eye Web site.

"Lake" continues through Feb. 4 at 1015 E. Carson St., South Side. Hours are noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and until 9 p.m. Thursday. Admission is free. Information: 412-431-1810 or www.silvereye.org.