Robert Cattan has an idea for the vacant storefronts in White Plains’ downtown area: open them up, without charge, for artists to create or display their work. Although vacant property is becoming rarer as the city’s downtown is being revitalized (or overdeveloped, depending on your point of view), Cattan believes that landlords holding out for a good deal should lend the space to artists for a short period of time.

“I think it would make the city more artist-friendly and more interesting for people to walk downtown,” Cattan, an artist and White Plains resident, said in a recent interview. “Landlords should allow artists to work there while there’s empty space.”

Cattan’s career as an artist began with an interest in photography when he was a high school student in Mamaroneck. He was born and raised in Montevideo, Uruguay, before coming to New York with his parents and sister at age 13. He was introduced to darkroom techniques as a senior in high school, and was later employed at a local studio and then at a New York City-based audio-visual company, as an assistant to the studio photographer. He attended the School of Visual Arts and did freelance work, specializing in creating optical effects for multimedia presentations. He later operated Cattan Photographics, based in New York’s Chelsea district, in a section also known as the Photo District, for 15 years.

With the rapid growth of computer technology, Cattan transitioned into computer-based photography, photographing products and doing illustrations for book covers. In 2001, he shifted his focus into fine art photography, and he honed his skills by becoming a fine art digital printer for prominent photojournalists. While collaborating with other photographers, Cattan said, he developed a “sophistication in recognizing the subtle differences in the art of printmaking.”

“The process of printmaking has been a great teaching tool in developing my vision,” Cattan said. “Learning to interpret the raw negative into the final print while collaborating with the author of the image is like getting inside someone else’s head and getting to know their vision.” In early 2005, Cattan decided to concentrate on his own fine art photography, and he relocated his studio to his White Plains home. “After years of commuting to New York City,” he said, “this move has allowed me the freedom to pursue my art while participating more fully in my family life.”

Cattan, 46, has lived in White Plains since 1987, first in the Battle Hill neighborhood and now, since 1997, in the Highlands neighborhood. His wife, Lesli, works for the Westchester County Department of Community Mental Health and has a private therapy practice in White Plains. The Cattans have a daughter in 11th grade and a son in 4th grade.

Later this month, Cattan will have a one-man exhibit at John Allan’s in New York City (in Tribeca); it will feature 15 large prints that Cattan described as “a fusion between photography and painting, printed on canvas material.”

Cattan works on multiple projects from his home studio. He has found a niche in working with photographers, “helping them bring out the strength of their images via ‘the new darkroom’—digital imaging—with care and sensitivity in preventing a distortion of the reality of their images.” Cattan said he strives to apply traditional darkroom skills using new technology.

“I am not interested in just recording what we see, but more an idealized interpretation of the subject matter,” he continued. “By using digital imaging, a dry flower becomes alive with a new infusion of elements such as textures, handpainted backdrops, and added elements.” Cattan said the best way to describe what he does is “painting with light; not much different than the traditional dogging and burning (lightening and darkening enlarged prints), but with greater accuracy. My photography involves finding the mundane and creating beauty and peacefulness and emotion.”

Cattan’s major focus currently is BotanicaArts.com, which specializes in creating handcrafted notecards, stationery, custom-ordered journals, and decorative papers. Using Lotka paper imported from Nepal, he designs the products using his series of botanical images. The paper is acid-free and tree-free, Cattan said, and the Lotka bush completely regenerates after harvesting. The products can be customized to clients’ individual needs, and the notecards can be run through a printer so the customer can create a customized message at home. At press time, the Web site was going through renovation to allow for online shopping. Cattan also provides an overall view of his work at cattanart.com , and he regulary posts finished and in-progress works on his blog at cattan.typepad.com/photography . Images from his Botanica series will be shown at the Soap Gallery in San Francisco on Oct. 18.

For the past 15 years, Cattan’s work has been represented by Index Stock Imagery, a stock photography agency that licenses images worldwide to be used as book covers, in editorial pieces, and in advertising. Cattan recently won honorable mention in the Fourth Annual Photoworkshop.com Digital Imaging Competition, sponsored by Adobe.

The exhibit at John Allan’s (418 Washington St. in New York City) will run from Sept. 21 through Dec. 21. The opening reception will be held Sept. 21 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. For more information, call (212) 334-5358.