If you hide Houston, can you tell it's Houston?

The second photo exhibition in Houstonist.com's "600 sq mi [1]" theme, this latest show includes the added aspect of examining the less-than-obvious aspects of our fair city. The balance to maintain: focus on Houston while taking aim at the city's unseen aspects. Does the picture reference anything recognizable about the locale? Could the photos provide a treasure map of places specific to here? Or could a similar shot be taken in any city?

The better images are ones that hold closest to the promise of the show's twin themes. Shraddha Shah's "Houston Downtown" offers a new view of the iconic former Enron Building, reflected in water. The curved edges of the building are mirrored and complemented by the rounded outline of a puddle in the street. Effective use of tilt-shift [2] technique by Jay Lee [3] made a custom car show at Reliant Stadium look like the floor of a kid's room. The cluttered interior courtyard of a school under construction is made even busier by the layering of multiple images, collaged together by Brendan Moody (see the photo on Flickr [4]).

Strong compositions make for arresting photos when it's harder to find Houston in them. While frustrating those looking for the actual location, two photographers offered the best abstracted images:

[5]
"Space City" [5], originally uploaded by bill barfield [6].

"Space City" by Bill Barfield: a mirrored highrise reflecting clouds and blue sky while framed by the same sky. It's a perfect execution of a simple (but not simplistic) shot. And, musician Jeff Balke's "Depth" provides a soft-focus look at a dark night of singing.

Many of the remaining images were moderate-to-thoroughly abstracted compositions, taking landscape and architectural elements and removing them from their context. Often ambiguous titles added little to go on and made their actual location a mystery, making it difficult to tie them back to the city.

Like the exhibition's theme, Xnihilo Gallery [7] itself is a bit off the beaten path. Tucked in the back of the Ecclesia [8] worship complex, a walk through the courtyard and cafe leads to the exhibition space. The gallery is an extension of the church's liberal and local outreach (This week's sermon: "Torture is Wrong;" in the cafe's library: "The Tao of Enron"). With a nice balance of relaxed-hipster/ask-us-about-what-Christ-can-do-for-you vibe, it's an intriguing alternative to the white wall art spaces that are the usual venue for exhibitions.

On display until November 23. Free.