A wave of photography shows has swept into the area, and that's extremely good news. After all, being able to view different dimensions of the medium - from conceptual to commercial - is especially gratifying when both arenas speak to social issues and change.

At + Gallery, Patti Hallock continues her search for imagery that deals with isolation and materialism. While still at the University of Colorado at Denver, her debut exhibition at + (then, as now, teamed with Jon Rietfors) focused on the exteriors of suburban houses at night.

With a hint of the work of Todd Hido about them, the large-scale C-prints in "Nocturnal Suburbia" had an otherworldly quality to them, basic boxes flooded with light as if they were the most simple of starlets. Now a graduate student at the Parson School of Design, Hallock has moved inside for "Wreck Room," which is all about the items we stash downstairs. Or, as she puts it, "The memories are in our heads, the stuff is in the basement."

Her show opens with a wonderfully clogged vista, Lego Highway, a basement full of the popular plastic blocks. But then it moves into a more solitary mode, almost the flip side, of spotlighted cast-offs, from a mattress and baby buggy to a mini-desk with the oldest of electronics, a typewriter. It's sort of a drastic shift, but the images are so strong, so sad, that it works.

The same sort of shift is true for Jon Rietfors' photo-based assemblages, in which the Glenwood Springs-based artist continues to create images ringing in disparate materials. Here, that is badge-mounts, colored to meld into C-prints of household objects (or people) set against odd backgrounds, plus heat transfer portraits stuck onto plates. The former category is more meaningful, since Rietfors comes closer to comment on consumerism, with stars such as blenders, vacuum cleaners and belts.

A "RETROSPECTIVE" FOR SUSAN GOLDSTEIN: Singer Gallery director Simon Zalkind manages to wring every ounce of room out of this space in the Mizel Center for Arts and Culture.

And that is certainly the case with "Susan Goldstein: Coming to America: A Retrospective," an examination of her work back to the late 1990s that captures the essence of this very thoughtful photographer.

On view through Dec. 31, this "retrospective" proves to be surprisingly comprehensive, representing bodies of work that include the eerie atmosphere of a Pennsylvania statuary factory ("Poli Vesture"); views of the West that surprise with their frankness ("The New American West"); and political imagery that pokes at this country's involvement in the war in Iraq ("Good v. Evil: Gross Oversimplification") and at the shady side of the 2000 election (the installation 537). For those who admire Goldstein's work - and I know we are legion - this is a show not to miss.

Zalkind has countered the familiar with the new in the nearby gallery annex. Judy Anderson puts aside her role as director of PlatteForum to focus on her own artwork. The new pieces for "Going Home" includes a mix of materials - cut paper, collage, painting and art books - that address the natural world, augmented by poetry by Ginny Hoyle. This, too, is work to value. Singer Gallery is at 350 S. Dahlia St.; information: 303-316-6360.

THE MACHINE AGE: A totally different type of photography fills Gallery Roach, at Roach Photo, 860 Broadway.

"Mile High Steel," up through January, focuses on photographs taken by founder Otto Roach of various steel fabricators operating in Denver in 1942.

These commercial images are full of social nuance, references to industrial pride, wartime urgency and sacrifice (at the old Heckethorn Manufacturing Co., rows of women assemble ammunition for the cause, while the Grauman Fountain Co. stopped making soda fountains and started making refrigerators for the Army). This is a different type of Denver, an industrial Denver that is not the face the city now shows to the world.

Dennis Walla, son of the man who bought the company from Roach, selected the work, including shots from 11 plants. Most no longer exist or have moved out of town.

As an examination of an aspect of this area's life blood before the service economy took hold, "Mile High Steel" is invaluable. Information: 303-839-5202.

Wreck Room/ A Better Life!

• What: Photographs by Patti Hallock and photo-based assemblages by Jon Rietfors

• Where and when: + Gallery, 2350 Lawrence St.; through Jan. 20

• Information: 303-296-0927; www.plusgallery.com

Mary Voelz Chandler is the art and architecture critic. Chandlerm@com or 303-954-2677.