Rick Colson and his late wife, both psychologists, were concerned “with those themes everyone deals with but often don’t share or talk about; things people are ashamed or embarrassed about. Common experiences everyone has had, one way or another.”

“It seemed important to me to bring some of those things to light, and that is what this project does,” says Colson.

A series of his photographs, Secrets in Plain Sight, is featured at The Griffin Museum at the Cambridge Homes, 360 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA, January 17 through March 11. An opening reception with the artist is January 17, 6:30-7:30 p.m.

The project includes 48 images, some 24 of which are being shown at the Cambridge Homes. This is the first time they are on exhibit.

Colson says the photographs were shot during the past five years throughout New England, in New York and Pennsylvania.

“I was looking for irony,” he says. “Things that stood out as being so common they were ubiquitous or stood out for being so unusual. I am visually drawn to those two extremes.”

Colson then added text to accompany each picture. “The words are my projection of what might be the circumstance of someone in those places or related to those places,” he says.

He also printed all the photographs.

Colson, whose father was a photographer, because serious about taking pictures at age 13. He sold his first print at age 15 and by the time he was 16 was shooting for Boston After Dark, a predecessor to the Boston Phoenix. He also stated shooting album covers, advertising and fashion work for local retailers, and for local television shows.

Colson earned a degree in photo illustration from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He went on to get a degree in clinical psychology from Hiram College, and worked as a mental health counselor.

His interests in design, writing, and communications led him to the Graduate School of Education at Harvard, where he furthered his studies in imaging and received a master’s degree in 1976.

Colson, of Wayland, MA, went on to a long career in marketing, advertising, and consulting. After selling his business in 2003, he began focusing on photography and printing.

He is the founder of EcoVisualLab.com, which is the merger of EcoVisual Communications – a 100 percent “green” large format printmaking organization – and a virtually “green” custom photo “lab.”

He prints on 100 percent cotton paper made from post-industrial reclaimed cotton fibers from cottonseed oil manufacturers. The papers are from local sources, to reduce the greenhouse gas admission associated with transport. And the inks used are VOC-free.

Colson says his father was blinded by exposure to a chemical found in film developers. And, Colson’s wife died of an environmental cancer.

“I could not do photography any more if it hurt the environment or was unhealthy,” he says. “There are a lot of environmental issues in this business. I had to find a way to do it that wasn’t destructive to the environment and people”.