INSIGHT FOR SORE EYES: Offering a strange if grotesque beauty, the above ground power and telephone lines at the intersection of Lover’s Lane and Mercer Street in Princeton are a sight that most of us take for granted. Photographer Alan Chimacoff hopes to change that and prompt those who view his work on display at the Princeton Public Library into a discussion that would see all such wires moved underground by the year 2020. Mr. Chimacoff will discuss his view at the library Thursday evening at 7 p.m. in the Community Room. (Image courtesy of the artist)

Who hasn’t looked with sadness, even horror, at some roadside tree misshapen by utility companies into a v-shaped caricature of its former self. Perhaps you might have wondered about the purpose and value of such prunings and whether they really do the job of protecting power and telephone lines from storms that are sure to come. Ridgeview Road resident Alan Chimacoff certainly has. One such sight spurred to action the photographer/architect who came to Princeton in 1973 to teach in the School of Architecture. A series of his photographs are currently on display on the second floor of the Princeton Public Library.

Mr. Chimacoff will put his argument for putting utility wires underground before a Princeton audience on Thursday, October 2, at 7 p.m. when he speaks in the Community Room at the Princeton Public Library (PPL).

The photographer makes his case with visual eloquence in the exhibition of 25 images that comprise “Princeton Underground 2020,” which will be on display through January 4, 2015.

His eye-catching images of complex systems of wires and pockmarked wood utility poles against sky and tangled tree limbs manifest his belief that Princeton “needs to put utility wiring underground in order to avoid continual power outages.” He’d like to see an end to telephone poles overloaded with wires, cables, splice boxes, light fixtures, cell booster boxes, and the rest.

Mr. Chimacoff’s one-man crusade against above-ground wires began several years ago in response to what he saw as “the wanton destruction and removal of trees” and days without power during storms. His work shows the absurd manner in which problems are “fixed” that simply exacerbate the situation. After taking numerous photographs, he approached PPL Director Leslie Burger and the current exhibition, curated by the Arts Council of Princeton’s Maria Evans, is the result.

The display highlights what most people drive past each day, without remark, having become used to the “mess” that results from the decisions of engineers who are “totally unregulated and totally uneducated about the way things ought to look,” said Mr. Chimacoff, who has received much comment in response to the exhibition. “It’s been gratifying to know that people look at these and see great photographs, and that is most meaningful to me since my photographs are generally neither topical nor political but rather have high artistic aspirations.” If the artist has his way, however, the subject of his art might disappear.

The exhibition’s title conveys not only conveys Mr. Chimacoff’s call for change to be accomplished by the year 2020, “it’s also a play on the numbers used to describe perfect vision, in this case hindsight and foresight,” he said, in an email interview Monday.

With one or two exceptions showing scenes in neighboring towns such as Lawrenceville and Hopewell, all of the photographs were taken in Princeton.

According to the photographer, it is inevitable that “storms with big winds, big rains and big snows will snap and uproot trees, knock down power lines and power poles, and leave us in the dark unless you happen to be in the center of Princeton or on the Princeton University campus, where the utilities are underground.”

“In the late 19th century, the telegraph and telephone revolutionized communication,” he explained. “Single wires strung between series’ of wooden poles enabled the most technologically advanced communication and stood as signs of progress. Today, 150 years later, the same poles are overloaded with literally tons of wires, cables, splice boxes, light fixtures, cell booster boxes, and myriad additional devices.

“Overloaded so heavily and asymmetrically, the poles bend and can break, even without a storm. Many are held upright with steel guy wires to keep them from overturning under their burden. Broken poles often are not replaced but reinforced with a second pole lashed to the first with yellow plastic rope — a caricature of a broken clipper ship mast (also of the 19th century) repaired in a storm at sea,” he said.

Putting all of the wiring underground would eliminate regular power outages as well as the cost of importing tech crews and tree crews from around the country, and the costs of restoration and repairs that continue year after year. While acknowledging that such change would be costly, Mr. Chimacoff questions whether we can afford not to do it. “Can everyone afford the cost of auxiliary power generators for their homes?”

The images on display at the library are a small fraction of the thousands of similar grotesqueries that can be seen in and around Princeton, said the photographer/architect who has taught at Princeton University as well as at Cornell University, Syracuse University, and the University of Maryland. In 1986, he joined Hillier Architecture as director of design. He left the Princeton faculty 1988 and is now principal of his own firm ikon.5 architects.

His previous solo exhibitions include JAMuse at Cornell University Johnson Art Museum, in Ithaca, N.Y., last year and and the Architects Gallery in Los Angeles, also last year. He’s shown at Princeton’s Art Times Two Gallery and at the Gensler New York, Architects Gallery, and is featured in the permanent collections at Cornell University Johnson Museum of Art, Princeton University, and in the homes of numerous private collectors.

His extensive list of accomplishments includes state and national design awards; national and international publications of buildings and writing; and a number of winning design competitions. He lectures broadly across the country.

For more on Mr. Chimacoff’s work, visit: www.chimacoff.com.