A special exhibit of their work, "Available Light: Three Views," is on display March 8 through 29 at the Orlando Gallery in Tarzana.

"The purpose of this show is to preview projects locally by established photographers before they are exhibited at other times in other places," said cinema professor Frederick Kuretski, whose work is featured in the show. "All three of us consider California State University, Northridge our home, and want to give the local community the first opportunity to view these new studies."

How Kuretski and art professors Edward Alfano and Lesley Krane use light in their pieces is a theme that ties the three series together.

Kuretski's project, titled "Leaving Gary," is a fine art, photographic study that traces the contrasts in the landscape and the divisions among the people and the political economy in and around Gary, Ind. The study begins at Gary, at the bottom of Lake Michigan, it continues through the steel mills and eastward among the beach towns in and adjacent to the Dunes National Lake Shore, terminating at New Buffalo, Mich.

"The contrast of New Buffalo, an old fur trading post which most recently reincarnated as an upscale resort with a harbor filled with ocean-going yachts, with the economic devastation shown at the beginning of the study illuminates as a major theme of the project," Kuretski said.

The project is slated for exhibition at the John G. Blank Center for the Arts in Michigan City, Ind., beginning in July. The Orlando Gallery exhibit features selected works from the project.

Alfano's series of pictures, titled "Urban Light," is the culmination of 30 years of study in the creative use of black and white infrared film. The images are created through both traditional silver printing and digital output. Using an urban setting, Alfano captured recordings of heat.

"Getting beyond my initial fascination with the medium has been difficult as I am still captivated by the surreal quality that the film provides," he said.

"Abalation Series," Lesley Krane's project, was initiated in part by her response to treatment for and recovery from thyroid cancer. That then led to another group of images, the "Space Series," that called attention to and explored the nature of negative space.

Literally sewn together, the otherwise independent, window-like rectangles that make up these compositions imitate the "fragmented view" of her mind's eye, Krane said.

"I invariably apply this skewed perception to everything that I see, and the handmade running stitch I employ emphasizes the fragile corporeality of the bodies and environments that I portray as well as the physical presence of the photographic prints," she said.

A reception for the artists is scheduled from 7 to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 8, at the gallery.

The Orlando Gallery is located at 18376 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana. Gallery hours are 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

For more information, call (818) 705-5368 or visit its Web site at www.empken.com/orlando.htm.