'Ghosts' reopens an entryway to America

"The Portrait Collages: Photographs by Paula Gillen" (there are 16) disjointedly plays with scale and perspective, showing the same sitter from different angles and distances. The pieces are like a hybrid of David Hockney's Polaroid work and Stephen Kroninger's collage illustrations, if nowhere near as notable as either.

"Running Through the Wind: Photographs by Frank Rothe" reconsiders an episode in the photographer's boyhood that didn't happen. A native of the former East Germany, he was supposed to go to a Soviet summer camp in 1984 but his name got left off the list of campers. Two decades later, camera in tow, he finally made it there. The 20 color images blend fondness and consternation. Their small size, 8 inches by 6 inches, gives a sense of unemphatic intimacy. Rothe somehow manages to triangulate what-might-have-been (his experience there), what-is (the kids' experience), and what-will-be (as one day the kids will be their own Frank Rothe, looking back). The light is soft, but not nostalgia-soft. Instead, its slight dullness conveys a sort of vexed wonder: This is the happiness I might have had, except now it doesn't look so happy!