Today's New York Times has an article about one of the creepiest, most disturbing collections of photographs I have ever seen. It belonged to Karl Hoecker, the adjutant to Auschwitz's commandant, and it comprises 116 photographs of Auschwitz guards and personnel frolicking during their off hours. A slide show accompanies the article (unfortunately, some rather grating and obvious narration from an archivist accompanies the slide show), so you can see Auschwitz's joyous guards for yourself. The image - or rather the person from an image - that stays with me is a young German woman holding a bowl upside down and contorting her face into a mock sob because she just finished her portion of blueberries. At first it seems a typical summer idyll, before you realise that it was taken just a few miles away from an Auschwitz operating at full capacity.

VIEWED from afar, it's easy to miss the humour in Andy Freeberg's latest collection of photographs. Indeed, the images might be mistaken for abstracts—they are soberly composed interiors, all geometric forms, stark white planes and diffused light. But look closer, and you'll see Mr Freeberg's subjects: behind the white boxes are people, the crowns of their heads just barely visible. And the boxes are really desks, for the photographs were taken in the entryways of major art galleries in Chelsea. With these deadpan portraits, Mr Freeberg reveals the absurdity in gallery administrators' habit of barricading themselves behind tall facades. The exhibition, titled "Sentry", is on view at Danziger Projects in New York.