A helmeted miner leans over a car full of coal in front of a timbered mine opening. The mighty Steelers kneel together in a room, heads bowed and hands joined. A tranquil wilderness lake is turned surreal by an emergent boulder that holds a book with an eye. A group of Weimaraner dogs gathered on a rock outcropping at the edge of the sea stare uniformly across a crevasse.

	Alma Lavenson's "Square Deal Garage," 1982. Click photo for larger image.

The photographic images are, respectively, Lewis Hine's 1920 "Brakeman on Coal Train, Pennsylvania"; Duane Rieder's "Our Father, Pittsburgh Steelers in 2005 AFC Championship Game versus New England Patriots"; Jerry Uelsmann's 2004 "Homage to John Muir"; and William Wegman's 2002 "Floating Island."

They represent the diversity of photographs -- and some of the distinguished photographers -- that comprise an exhibition at Silver Eye Center for Photography that continues until May 20, when the pieces will be auctioned to benefit the organization's exhibition program.

The first thing to note about Silver Eye is that it's a full-service professional organization.

A nonprofit with a local and national membership that presents exhibitions of fine photography, the South Side venue is also an educational facility. That quality is particularly evident when Silver Eye holds its biennial auction, and it distinguishes it from similar events elsewhere.

The organization's fund-raising opportunity is also a chance to display an eclectic gathering of images -- from a circa 1850 daguerreotype "Wedding Photograph" to Kevin Francis Sweeney's 2006 Superbowl shot inside Ford Field, part of his "Worshipping the Pittsburgh Steelers" series; from genre to abstract, traditional to experimental, color to black and white, and silver gelatin to digital print.

"It takes us two years to pull this material together," says executive director Linda Benedict-Jones, whose own reputation in the national photography community is a major reason for the high level of respondents and works. "You go anywhere in Western Pennsylvania and you won't see these things. It's such a treat to have an original Esther Bubly, Lewis Hine, Walker Evans, W. Eugene Smith [picturing signs marking the corner of Ophelia and Hamlet Streets, Pittsburgh] -- they're rare and they're getting rarer."

Jerry Uelsmann's "The Alpha Tree," 2002 Click photo for larger image.

One reason for that is the growing interest in collecting photography, one of the more vigorous sectors of the hot art market. Sotheby's sold an Edward Steichen in February for $2.9 million, almost triple its $1 million estimate and the largest amount paid at auction for a photograph. Estimates at Silver Eye range from $200 to the low thousands.

The highest, $14,000, is for an early Evans, a 1929 picture of architect Paul Grotz and his wife dining in their New York apartment that is, Benedict-Jones notes, "sultry and mysterious at the same time." After that, an almost reverent 1985 color twilight image of Pittsburgh by Duane Michals, "I saw a magical city asleep, floating on rivers of dreams, beneath a giant star," is estimated at $5,000-$7,500. Michals, a New Yorker and a McKeesport native whose archives and works are in Carnegie Museum of Art's collection, has contributed a photograph to every Silver Eye auction. A nude study, "Dark Torso With Hands" from 1971, by Ruth Bernhard, commands a $7,000 estimate. It was donated by the California artist who is 100 years old and still photographing.

The photographers aren't all famous names. Some are well known nationally or locally, while others are emerging. Standouts among many excellent images by Pittsburgh photographers are those of Martha Rial, Randy Olson, Dan Mohan, Kaoru Tohara and Dylan Vitone.

It's just such a mix that draws collectors to the charity auction, where there's a chance to purchase the next rising star at an affordable stage.

Or to find something unique. Among the 117 lots are a 33-page, circa 1890s "sharkskin-covered 19th-century photography album including significant historic sites from World Tour"; an American League official baseball signed in 1996 by the late photojournalist Charles "Teenie" Harris, who frequently photographed the Pittsburgh Crawfords; and Arthur D'Arazien's circa 1950s color photograph of the interior of the "Rendleman Rod Mill," which must have been a technical achievement at the time.

To help people navigate the terrain of both appreciation and investment, Silver Eye has scheduled two talks.

At 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Stephen Perloff, editor of The Photograph Collector, will speak on "Collecting Photographs: Everything You Need to Know Even If You Didn't Know to Ask" ($26). At 7 p.m., May 17, "What to Buy and Why" will be addressed by Benedict-Jones and Brian Lang, manager, Mellon Financial Corporation's art collection ($10).

A summary of the current purchasing wisdom, Benedict-Jones says, is to buy contemporary since today's photographers are tomorrow's masters, and to buy historic work when possible because there's not much left.

But mostly, she hopes people will come to see the exhibition, whether or not a piece of it goes home with them on the 20th.

The exhibition is at 1015 E. Carson St. through May 19. Hours are noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and until 9 p.m. Thursdays. Admission is free. An auction catalog is $5. Lots may also be seen on the Web site, and absentee bids are accepted. Auction admission and bid number, including a post-auction light lunch, is $30. Space is limited and reservations are recommended for auction and talks. For information, call 412-431-1810 or visit www.silvereye.org.