“Past and Future Focus,” displayed in the Stanton Gallery in downtown Littleton’s Town Hall Arts Center from May 12 through June 22, accompanies the last production of the theater’s season: “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” which features the rollicking keyboard music of Jelly Roll Morton, with a story and a song or two ... The exhibit explores both historic film and contemporary digital photography.

Curator Moira Casey reports that three photographers will participate in “Past and Future Focus”: Karen Zink of Littleton; Tony Lazzari of Roxborough — an exhibiting member of the new Roxarts Gallery at Aspen Grove; and David M. Parks, who grew up in Denver. Each has a story to tell — as did Fats Waller!

Thought-provoking images by Karen Zink, a longtime resident of Littleton, include carefully composed collages using everyday objects. She said, “Explaining my art is like trying to hold on to fog or a dream. I work in several areas of photography, some old processes, Polaroid transfers, black and white, color, using different formats, now including digital.” She aims for a personal response from the viewer, especially women probably.

“I often describe what I do as creating inner landscapes, or personal stories, ones that we own ourselves, rather than documenting the external world.” She adds that her dreams are a source of ideas. “Then again, sometimes I just try to make something of beauty.”

Tony Lazzari, who is surrounded by natural beauty where he lives in Roxborough, write that he has mostly lived in the Midwest until a 2013 move to Colorado. In the past several years, he has discovered the natural beauty and the pleasure of learning the craft of photography and exhibiting his images — especially landscapes and night scenes — in Denver, Lone Tree, Highlands Ranch and Littleton, as well as across the U.S. He enjoys experimenting with a variety of lenses and is spending time on urban and street photography.

David M. Parks moved to Denver with his family at age 3, grew up and spent four years in the Navy. He returned and “pursued a career path in aviation,” while developing a parallel interest in photography, gaining formal training at the former Metropolitan State College. He also enjoyed roaming the streets and alleys during 1977 to 1983, using mostly black-and-white film. He participated in juried shows in Spark Gallery and at the Littleton Museum in 2015, and in the Cincinnati FotoFocus in 2016.

The images presented at Stanton Gallery are stills from film canisters that were unintentionally stored for 35 years, until they were discovered and processed in 2017. “In all the time since they were manufactured, they had 1/250th second of light and years of darkness. It is more than just seeing what time has done to the emulsion, but that the textures produced lead us to imagine that something is not quite right with the world. The water and skies are electrified and objects seem to fly through the air. Humanity is gone. All that is left are the structures and tools.”