The name Vickie Fruehauf has chosen for her current photographic exhibition—-“American Artifacts”—-is generous. For the most part, her photographs depict cast-off junk and old structures, though her technique—-inky black-and-white images made with a cheap-chic Holga camera and printed on lovely textured paper—-elevates her humble subject matter, stylistically invoking the works of Emmet Gowin or Sally Mann. Fruehauf, who teaches at Georgetown University, has an eye for interesting material —-a retreating row of stripped highway billboards, a run-down motel with surprisingly jaunty architectural angles, a former Texaco sign that is now just an outline. But her finest, and most weighty, image is of a discarded old television amid a field of brambles. Its screen faces skyward, seemingly pleading for the assistance of an opaque higher power.

Through Dec. 11 at the Lucille and Richard Spagnuolo Gallery, 1221 36^th St NW, Washington, D.C. (202) 687-9206. Open Tues-Sat 12-5, Sun 11-4.