By KRISTA GROMALSKI

MILFORD - Sandra Eisner and Hortense Jacobs explore the spiritual essence within places and objects through their photography. Their exhibit "Two Perspectives" opened at the ARTery fine art and craft gallery in Milford with a Sunday afternoon reception.

Although these women may not be conveying the same essence through their work, both share an appreciation for the "feeling" of a place or an object.

Jabobs' photographs offer a fresh perspective on the world of junkyards and scrap heaps. Her close-ups of rust and metal transport the viewer from the past into the present, bringing new life to objects which show the effects of time through decay.

Most of Jacobs' photographs are abstract compositions of layers of chipped and weathering paint on abandoned boats or cars. Jacobs does not manipulate her images in any way. The colors seen by the viewer are the colors seen by the artist at work.

The shapes, colors and textures within the pieces allow the object in focus to escape the confines of physical constructs and to become something other than itself. Yet, these same qualities within the work allow the objects themselves to speak... revealing the true essence within.

"I prefer to focus on something that really knocks me out," said Jacobs as she spoke of her art. "I think there is something beautiful in everything."

The artist credited her interest in the effects of time and the elements to her parents. Her father, she said, was 58 years old at her birth, while her mother was 24. "This provided an appreciation [in me] for age," she said, whose acrylic paintings are also included in the exhibit.

Eisner's hand-painted photographs convey the essential feelings of the places she photographs. "The crunchy places that have presence," as she calls them.

Her work peers into places now devoid of human presence to reveal the energy that had once been there. "There is a loneliness to a lot of places when there are no people," said Eisner.

To illustrate her theory that places have an inherent presence, Eisner pointed to her painted photograph of a vacant building taken on a back road while traveling through the desert. Shooting the building with both 35 mm black and white and infrared film, she included her own shadow in the bottom right-hand corner of the frame. While inspecting both negatives of the photo, she discovered what appear to be the shadows of a person and a dog. These "ghost shadows," she said, were not visible on the black and white negative but only the infrared, which is designed to sense temperature rather than light.

Eisner trusts her instincts in her art, adding, "I felt the presence of that place."

The photographs of Eisner and Jacobs will be on display at the ARTery through August 31. The gallery is open Thursdays through Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Mondays from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The ARTery is located in the Old Lumberyard Shops in Milford.

For more information call 570/409-1234 or visit www.ARTeryOnLine.com.