Today, the hottest photographers seem more concerned with creating reality than documenting it�which makes Lida Moser a welcome throwback. Moser, 84 and a Washington-area resident, made her living for decades as a New York City�based freelance photographer for such magazines as Look, Esquire, and Vogue.

A 23-work exhibit at Fraser Gallery Georgetown offers a tiny peek into her long and wide-ranging career, but her v�rit� black-and-white images decisively break through today�s clutter. When Moser documented the construction of New York�s Exxon Building in the early �70s (Construction of Exxon Building, New York City is pictured here), she turned it into a virtual abstract-expressionist stripe painting.

A photograph on a Scottish sidewalk in the late �40s seems like a carefully arranged group portrait, until you realize that the title, Queen�s Parade, Edinburgh, Scotland, means it�s actually a spontaneous image of the expectant crowd.

Moser�s distinctly horizontal photograph of a man sitting on a chair on a sidewalk next to a row of trash cans and discarded boxes strongly suggests Whistler�s Arrangement in Grey and Black. A portrait of jazzman Charles Mingus practically vibrates with energy.

Shadow, 23rd St. and 5th Ave. offers an amoebalike distortion of a pedestrian�s body and shadow on a seemingly reflective sidewalk.

Though Moser�s photograph of a fashion model surrounded by rambunctious street kids is her most iconic, the show�s most striking image is Office Building Lobby, New York, in which Moser�s wild overexposure has reduced organization men to near�stick figures and the lobby to an ill-defined blob, presaging by several years the visual distortions of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The show is on view from noon to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and from noon to 6 p.m. Saturdays, to Wednesday, April 13, at the Fraser Gallery, 1054 31st St. NW. Free. (202) 298-6450. (Louis Jacobson)

Louis Jacobson

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