TO COMPLEMENT THE San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's current exhibition of recent photographs by Bay Area artist Larry Sultan, Stephen Wirtz Gallery has mounted a show of prints from his now renowned 1977 project with Mike Mandel, "Evidence." The two photographers spent three years sifting through the archives of corporations, government agencies, and educational institutions, ultimately to select 59 photographs – none of which were intended to be exhibited as fine art pieces – for publication in a book. Originally they served the utilitarian ends of the industries that produced them, documenting crime scenes, science experiments, and other tests. However, in the absence of any titles or captions explaining their functions, the images reveal unexpected aesthetic complexities. They're formally refined photographs that often seem to convey remarkable social and psychological significance. In one picture, shot so closely that no faces can be seen, two Santa Cruz policemen restrain what appears to be a boy. An arm clutches the youth around the neck, while two hands clench his contorted wrists. Although likely constructed to demonstrate restraining techniques, the photograph evokes a physical sense of oppression and generational conflict. In another picture, men in full-body suits sit suspended along the walls of a hangar, painting the outside of a jumbo jet that glows with an iridescent halo and looks like a cross between a spaceship and a mythical monster or deity. Some of the pictures appear to tell stories, while others seem (counterfactually) to have been crafted merely for considerations of light and design – and therefore are beautiful. As appropriated works, the photographs raise questions concerning authorship and intention, art and industry, form and function. They challenge conventional boundaries between creative, curatorial, and critical practices. And they anticipate the emergence of appropriation as a standard artistic technique. The images also shed interesting light on Sultan's own recent photography by revealing unconscious connections between pictures selected and pictures taken, as well as situating his art (including his photographs of San Fernando Valley's porn industry) on the margins of commercial, industrial photography. Also showing at Stephen Wirtz Gallery is a series of vivid photographs by Alec Soth documenting life on the Mississippi River. Tues.-Fri., 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Sat., 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., 49 Geary, third floor, S.F. (415) 433-6879. (Clark Buckner)