By Dustin Lowman

WESTPORT — A young couple strolling through the tunnel linking Main Street with Parker Harding Plaza on a recent afternoon found the experience much more than pedestrian.

Surprised to see lenticular artwork adorning the walls, they slowed their pace to inspect a photograph of hands that appear to clasp and unclasp.

“I want to know their stories,” said the man, in town from Minnesota. His companion agreed. His favorite among the photos was the one with the locket; hers, the one with the pins. 

Community totem Miggs Burroughs installed the 16 images that constitute “Tunnel Vision” in 2014, when the tunnel was little more than a derelict alley. 

Burroughs, who took all of the photos, also recruited the couples featured in the work, describing the project as “a collaboration of sorts … in the sense that they each brought their own distinctive way of interacting with one another.”

Seven years later, however, the images’ radiance has faded, and Burroughs needs help restoring the project.

“Most people don’t know what it was or should be,” Burroughs said of the project’s original appearance. “These [colors] are all faded, and we have to replace the backs. You can see there’s only three strips of LED” — light boxes illuminate the photographs from behind — “and we want to get it so it’s all even.”

The lenticular photos are shot using a special lens, and the images appear to change when viewed from different angles. One of the tunnel photos depicts two pairs of hands holding an uncut bagel. But walk a little farther, and the image changes — each pair of hands holds an open half, with cream cheese, tomatoes, lox, capers and onions.

To complete the restoration, Burroughs and Mark Yurkiw, president of #1 Main Street Gallery Inc., operating as Pop’t Art gallery, have organized a fundraising campaign. The project includes reprinting the images on expensive Duratrans backlit film and installing new UV-resistant light panels to prevent burn-induced loss of color.

The project will cost an estimated $12,000, according to organizers.

“I was so happy when Miggs was able to put in this exhibit,” said Yurkiw. “When it started to have technological failures, it felt important to help him resurrect it to its former glory. 

“Miggs has done so much for the town, it’s about time the town realized this is something we can do for him,” he added.

Yurkiw and Burroughs first met at a party celebrating Burroughs’s work and community contributions about seven years ago. Unable to hold the party in her own house, former Planning and Zoning Commission member Connie Greenfield asked Yurkiw to host the party. 

“It was like my own funeral,” Burroughs said of plaudits at the event. “It was fantastic.” 

Drawn to Burroughs’s work and generosity, Yurkiw felt he might be able to help with logistics for the renewal project. “It’s not Miggs’s way to ask for anything,” he said. “I took it on myself to start a capital campaign to find the help that Miggs needed to make this happen.”

“We’re almost at our goal, so any help you can get is great,” said Burroughs.

After the upgrade, Burroughs and Yurkiw want to promote the unexpected art gallery in the downtown tunnel.

“Seven years later, people come to me and say, ‘We had no idea it was there!’ ” Yurkiw said. “And these are Westporters.”

For more information about “Tunnel Vision” and to donate to the restoration campaign, visit: tunnelvisionart.com