Photographs are usually easy to classify: realistic or abstract; portrait, landscape, action shot, and so on. But the startlingly original images of Robert ParkeHarrison defy simple classification.

Mr. ParkeHarrison's work concerns man's impact on the natural world, specifically relating to industrialization and technology. With his wife and collaborator, Shana ParkeHarrison, he explores many facets of this theme through an elaborate creative process that involves researching ideas, collecting props, constructing sculptures and sets, staging outdoor photo shoots, and finally, cobbling together multiple paper negatives into one powerful and often darkly humorous image.

This thoughtful artist - who is fast becoming known in the world of contemporary art - does not create self-portraits or even barren landscapes. Nor is he just another environmentalist photographer keen on conveying an urgent message.

More than 40 of their sepia-toned images are currently on view in the exhibition "Robert ParkeHarrison: The Architect's Brother" at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Mass. The show also features sketchbooks, audio interviews, and a public-TV special on the artists, which offer a glimpse into their profound ideas, imaginative methods, and harmonious collaboration.

Inspired by the classic story of "The Little Prince," among many other cultural and historical influences, the ParkeHarrisons' collaged works - mostly either photogravure prints or gelatin-silver prints and mixed media panels - always feature a lone man in a barren world. While struggling to eke out an existence, he takes an interest in preserving the natural world around him. Representing this man is ParkeHarrison himself, who appears in every image as the stand-in for humanity, or Everyman. He wears the same tight-fitting dark suit, white oxford shirt, and slightly worn dress shoes.

Their Everyman evokes quiet reflection, curiosity, and the occasional chuckle as viewers observe his preoccupation with pursuits both serious and absurd.

In "Cloud Cleaner," for example, a gelatin silver print and mixed media on panel constructed in 1999, he carries a backpack full of mops and brushes as he looks up at a dark, ominous cloud. In his 2000 image "Flying Lesson," ParkeHarrison holds both a large birdcage containing a single crow and several other lassoed birds that soar upward as they attempt to pull him up behind them. And in "Mending the Earth," the figure attempts to sew together a deep crack in the earth's surface with an enormous needle.

Their images can be interpreted in many ways, but one thing is certain: They stir thought, says Diana Gaston, a contemporary art curator who narrated a recent public-television special about the ParkeHarrisons' work. "The images make us reflect on our role within the universe," says Ms. Gaston. "The ParkeHarrisons don't lecture us about the environment. Instead, they are all about posing questions and getting us to think about what we are doing."

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