It isn’t always the large-scale art openings that make you stand up and take notice. At times it is the smaller, intimate ones that can take the breath away, and that is the case with the current exhibit at the Akron Art Museum, a Knight Arts grantee, called “Invitation to Stare: Photographic Portraits.”

Curator for the display Arnold Tunstall said in a walk-through interview that he looked through the large collection of images for nearly a year to narrow down the number of photographs to the 32 on exhibit here. It was a “hard” task, he noted, but the result is a display of works that will be mostly new to viewers. “Only five have been shown before” Tunstall said.

His idea for the exhibit was to get at the notion of intimacy – either between the photographer and his subject, the quickly captured image of a stranger, or the subject matter itself that is either caught or manipulated by the artist.

More importantly, the works are “significant” in themselves. It doesn’t matter in these cases whether you know the artist or not (and there are always exhibits of single artists to be had, and AAM has several itself that can be mounted). In this exhibit, Tunstall is revealing that the works very clearly speak for themselves and capture the main idea as only really good art and photography can. There’s an unflattering photograph of a young disheveled-looking boy, with shorts worn way too high in Central Park holding a toy hand grenade in his right hand.  It doesn’t really matter that the artist was famed photographer Diane Arbus, who deliberately sought out odd people in unusual situations. Simply seeing the person caught in the act went to her idea that the danger of going out in public is that you might have your photo taken. Angelo Merendino, “Untitled, from The Battle We Didn’t Choose – My Wife’s Fight with Breast Cancer.” Photo courtesy of Akron Art Museum

In another photo, one of a young woman sitting in a hospital setting looking hurt, sad, frustrated and mostly angry, you get the idea that she has not received good news. It is a portrait by local Akron artist Angelo Merendino and the subject is his wife, a woman diagnosed with breast cancer who ultimately did not survive the onslaught to her body.

There is also significance in learning that the couple created a blog to address their medical issues while living in New York City so folks back home would know what was going on. That blog and the images have gone viral.

Important, surely, but the work has its own incredibly powerful and haunting message.

Another photo shows a young boy in the midst of bubble gum exploding all over his face. You get the idea of a parent or relative capturing the progress of a child growing up without necessarily knowing how that process will go. Does it add to know that photographer Sylvia Plachy was in fact doing that, and that the boy is Academy Award-winning actor Adrien Brody? Probably, but the photo tells the intimate tale.

Loretta Lux, “Hidden Rooms 1.” Photo courtesy of Akron Art Museum

Every photograph in “Invitation to Stare” has a story. The thrust, however, is that these intimate looks at people – sometimes strangers on the street, sometimes oddball folks, and sometimes people caught in emotionally distracting situations – are invitations to look at the moments. You would not stare in real life probably, but you can here.

“Invitation to Stare: Photographic Portraits” will be on display from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays and 11 a.m.-9 p.m. on Thursdays, through June 1 at Akron Art Museum, One South High St., Akron; 330-376-9185; www.akronartmuseum.org. General admission is $7 (free on Thursdays).