The recent focus for Robert Diehl of Camarillo, formerly a wedding and portrait photographer, has been on making fine art images in limited editions from his travels. His exquisite candid street scenes, geometric landscapes and architectural abstractions first catch the eye, then prod the mind.

So Diehl’s upcoming solo exhibition at the Buenaventura Gallery, “Idioms: A Play on Words,” is quite a departure: It is studio work instead of location photography, and is thoughts turned into pictures. The show will run May 22 through June 16 at the downtown Ventura gallery, with an opening reception from 4-7 p.m. May 26. Diehl will also be present during First Friday Ventura Gallery Crawl on June 1 between 5- 8 p.m.

Idioms are groups of words that through use acquire meanings beyond their individual definitions. In his photos for this show, Diehl has deconstructed some familiar idioms visually. For instance, he put a bust of Benjamin Franklin inside a green garland festooned with the Founding Father’s portrait and against a Colonial 13-star flag to illustrate “A Wreath of Franklin.”

In “A Salt with a Deadly Weapon,” a Morton’s container is paired in a stark, film-noir scene with a formidable hunting knife jabbed into a piece of wood.

“Humor is the major theme of this exhibit,” says Diehl, who describes it as “Andy Warhol meets Frank and Ernest.” He calls the comic strip duo’s mangled language “daily inspiration,” and says, “ The challenge has been to display this humorous conflict between words and images in an artistic manner.

“I create photographs to satisfy an urge to discover something new. I want to be able to say, ‘I discovered it, and here it is.’ My driving force is experimentation — trying something new to see what happens.”

To see what happens, visit the Buenaventura Gallery, 700 E. Santa Clara St. Hours are noon-5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. For more information, visit their website at www.BuenaventuraGallery.org.