Can safe mode be turned off in the .htaccess file?
I don't know the gallery script but setting safe_mode_include_dir should help. Ask the admin to set it to your directory for your virtual host. Another option would be to use ftp functions to upload the images to your directory, but you would have to rewrite the script.
According the safe-mode page http://us4.php.net/features.safe-mode in http.conf :
<Directory /docroot>
php_admin_value open_basedir /docroot
# In your case safe_mode_include_dir
</Directory>
Can "php_admin_value" be inlcuding in the *.php pages and/or .htaccess.
David