An eye for detail served John F. Raczkiewicz well in his 30-year career with the U.S. Customs Office. Every working day he had to verify documents for passports and commercial imports.

"The work was interesting but relatively low-key and involved a lot of paper work,'' he recalled.

Mr. Raczkiewicz, 60, of Mt. Lebanon, spent the last dozen years of his career stationed at The Greater Pittsburgh International Airport, where he looked for smuggled drugs and false visas.

Retired for the past five years, Mr. Raczkiewicz has been able to devote more time to his longtime hobby, photography.

This month he has 18 photographs on display in the Mt. Lebanon Public Library that he has taken of alleyways in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood, his boyhood home.

A graduate of Central Catholic High School and Duquesne University, Mr. Raczkiewicz said the photo exhibit is a tribute to the streets and alleys -- and shortcuts -- that he walked daily for a number of years as a newspaper carrier. He sometimes carried a single lens reflex camera with him and recorded the images he liked.

He attributes his interest in photography to his late father, John J., who also dabbled as an amateur.

"Oakland is a very photogenic area that has everything to offer -- old commercial and residential buildings, libraries, universities, churches and other structures," Mr. Raczkiewicz said.

He noted that artist Andy Warhol also was a Pittsburgher who drew his inspiration from its vibrant and cultural neighborhoods.

One photograph shows the Cathedral of Learning as seen from an alleyway between two houses. Another shows a stunning shot of the Cathedral from an alleyway on Cato Street.

His photographs, which are made from original slides taken in the 1980s that he has reproduced digitally, display his flair for accenting the intricate geometry of a structure with a unique composition and lighting.

These are the kinds of sights that thousands of residents, workers and students in Oakland see every day. But the camera points them out in a new way, he said.

Mr. Raczkiewicz previously displayed other such photographs of Oakland at the Cliffside Restaurant on Mount Washington, at an East Liverpool art gallery and at a photography center in Washington, D.C.

The photographs are on display all month in the lower level of the library at 16 Castle Shannon Blvd. Hours are 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday..

Mardi Centinaro, head of adult services at the library, said the facility has been providing free display areas for local artists since 1997. There is an upper level and a lower level where artists display -- but can not sell -- their works for one month. The spaces have a waiting list.