ONLY IN AMERICA: Some Unexpected Scenery <i> photographs by David Graham, introduction by Jane and Michael Stern (Alfred A. Knopf, $35; 97 pp.).</i>

So, you’re tooling down Route 15 near Gettysburg, Pa., and your head snaps around because you think you just saw three wrecked cars and a motorcycle impaled on poles behind a wooden fence. You did. Or you happen to be in Providence, R.I., and you believe you saw a house that appears to have been colored by a kid with crayons--and there are Crayolas as long as Volkswagens stuck to the home--so you drive around the block to check, and the place is really there. While Graham may have included some images you’ve seen before, most of these strange-but-true color photos, often funny and occasionally heartwarming, always skillfully composed, probably will introduce you to new Americana. Forget about the introduction; it tells you how good the pictures are, and you can see that for yourself. Easily.