The four participating art galleries, as well as other downtown shops, will have extended hours from 5 to 8 p.m.

At Forty-Five North Art Gallery, 121 N. Second Ave., come in and see the work of two newly featured artists:

¯ Ted Fines’ handsome metal prints of industrial and forsaken building photos taken around the Alpena and Alcona area.

¯ A tribute to the late nature photographer Tom Bennett, with all profits from those sales going toward Art Vision Alpena. Gallery owners August and Peggy Matuzak will also match any money raised through the sale of Bennett’s prints.

The photo at right is just one of the many nature photography prints by the late Tom Bennett available for purchase at Forty-Five North Art Gallery. Bennett’s family has donated a collection of his prints to be sold at affordable prices, with 100% of the money going toward Art Vision Alpena, and the gallery is matching all the money raised through the sale of these prints.

“This collection of photography is from the estate of Tom Bennett,” the tribute on display at the gallery reads. “Tom was an accomplished nature photographer who lived in Alpena. These prints are offered for sale with 100% of the money being donated to Art Vision Alpena for public art installations all around Alpena.”

Prints are affordably priced, ranging from $15 to $50 in a variety of subjects and sizes, featuring flowers, landscapes and wildlife.

“His unique images of wildflowers provide an unusual, sometimes rare view, not often seen,” a flyer for Memory Bank Photography reads. “His work has been published in Basket Bits, Textile, The Basketmaker, and Professional Photograher magazines.”

So gallery-goers can pop in and check out Bennett’s work, as well as that of Fines, and the other 17 artists whose work is for show and sale at Forty-Five North.

“We thought, ‘What would Alpena be interested in?'” said Peggy Matuzak, who owns the gallery with her husband August. “Ted’s eye for capturing the beauty in even the decrepit, if you will, we thought, with all the people who work and have worked at the factories here in town, made a living, there’s a connection there. So we thought, ‘Why don’t we showcase that?'”

“Ted was more than happy to accommodate,” she added, noting that he took many industrial photos from around Alpena, with 10 currently on display and available for sale, printed on metal.

“Most people are pretty fascinated when they come in here,” Fines said at the gallery on Tuesday, noting that the gallery has an eclectic array of work to choose from.

Fines has the unique ability to see the beauty in the old, dingy, abandoned spaces that many others may overlook.

“I guess it started when I was very young, and I used to go down to the end of our road, and we used to live on Lake Erie, so there were all these summer cabins and abandoned homes,” Fines recalled. “I can remember going down with my sister and looking in the windows. And that’s when I started getting into photography. I was about 9 or 10 years old, and I started taking pictures of these abandoned homes.”

Then when he lived in Detroit he became an urban explorer, pioneering a group of photographers who went around the city searching for abandoned buildings, which became the subject of much of his work.

“There’s something ghost-like when you walk in for the first time,” Fines said of abandoned buildings. “It’s fascinating. And it’s historical in the sense that … a lot of these buildings will not exist years from now. They’ll be gone.”

His photos are based on composition, with angles, color, position, light, shadows and perspective in mind.

“So there’s a reason behind all this madness that you see on the wall,” he said with a smile.

He uses a Nikon D300, single-lens reflex digital camera.

“Since 2004, I probably have accumulated over 50,000 images,” Fines said. “So you can imagine how difficult it is to pick and choose.”

Other Art Walk festivities include:

¯ My Glass Wings, 106 N. Second Ave. — All the artists participating at My Glass Wings will be available to meet and greet visitors. Questions about who they are, what they do and how it’s done can all be handled on Friday night.

¯ Studio Rubedo, in its new location at 213 W. Chisholm St. — Meet artist and gallerist Brian Schorn while previewing the Sun and Moon Galleries at Studio Rubedo.

¯ Thunder Bay Arts Gallery, 127 W. Chisholm St. — Watch artists Pam O’Neil and Barb Weisenburg paint while original singer and songwriter Gary Weisenburg plays guitar.

The list of other businesses extending their hours on Friday can be found on the Downtown Development Authority website at www.alpenadda.com. There will be a pre-Christmas Art Walk on Nov. 29.