Excerpt...
In the RedShift exhibition, change is not presented as a before-and-after proposition, but as reminders.

Allen, born in 1955 in Denver, has chosen subjects both evocative and surprising. But this is not about the big-sigh moment; it's more about revelation and remembrance in black and white.

The old Auraria Railyards shown in 1985 gave way to Elitch Gardens and the Pepsi Center. The Monarch Mills building in 1992 is now MCA/Denver.

The once bombed-out Flour Mill of 1988 is now upscale lofts and parent of a not-so-proud successor. Allen shot the implosion of the Fireman's Grain Elevator in 1992 at 20th and Blake streets; think Coors Field. Consider the man on the left in another photo, standing outside a brewpub in the making in 1988; talk about change for a geologist turned politico.

There is no fakery here, no inference that what was then is better than what is now. A viewer must bring the emotion to the table. (Confession: I miss those rickety - OK, dangerous - viaducts, so the 1993 image of the one on 16th Street seems particularly powerful.)

As Denver prepares to turn 150, and considers its good and bad times, both exhibitions can be seen in two lights: obviously educational, but also cautionary. The future is important, but the past holds the key.