A full spectrum

It’s always tempting (and almost always a mistake) to discern trends in biennials. One of the satisfactions of the Danforth show is how Prodger and O’Brien have resisted the temptation to be exclusive on the basis of any principle other than simple visual interest. A viewer is as likely to encounter photographs of Afghanistan (one each from Kabul and Kandahar, by Paula Lerner) as of a teenager’s personal space in Brookline or Winchester (Rania Matar’s “A Girl and Bedroom’’ series). In content, there’s nothing parochial about the Biennial. Louisiana, France, and Coney Island are here, along with Concord, the Cape, the Common, and multiple points between.

The ever-growing prevalence of color in serious photography has been going on so long that “trend’’ long ago ceased to apply. Only a third of the photographs here are in black and white. Yet that doesn’t indicate a diminution in the documentary impulse. There are very few staged or manipulated images here - and most of them ape the appearance of reality. The deadpan faux-ness of the two pictures from Alexia Mellor’s “Extending the Skies’’ series makes them that much funnier. It takes a close look at Cass’s “Cypress Field’’ to notice that what looks like one exposure of many young women playing with footballs is, in fact, several exposures of just a few young women. Almost all the pictures are shot more or less straightforwardly. That said, one of the few that isn’t, Suzanne Revy’s “Small Wonders, Swim Lesson,’’ which is shot from above, is all the more revealing for its lifeguard’s-eye view.