Gallery owner Terry Etherton is reflected in a lightning photograph by A.T. Willett that is part of an exhibit of severe-weather photographs by Willett and Jeff Smith at Etherton Gallery at 135 S. Sixth Ave.

david sanders / arizona daily star

More Photos (1):

Related articles:

Art was life for Rudans

Other articles by Sarah Mauet:

Form over function Catching some air Let's do lunge, correctly Writing book nearly a must for candidates Dealing with food Exhibit explores nature of creativity Everyone has a secret ... Walking good for both man and beast 'The Dog Diet' Out there among us Perfecting the push-up

Trades/Construction
Wentz and Patrick Construction
Carpenters & Helpers General
The Graham Group
Assistant to the Building Manager Trades/Construction
Pioneer Landscaping
Yard Person/Loader Operator Sales and Marketing
Xentel
Expanding call center. New Hiring Bonus! General
ADVANCED AUTOMOTIVE
DISPATCHER/SECRETARY Trades/Construction
Baker Brothers Plumbing
Dry Wallers Production and Manufacturing
Pioneer Landscaping
Crushing Crew

Terry Etherton still remembers the first photograph that made an impression on him.

He was in class at Southern Illinois University, where he studied cinematography and photography, and he saw a Danny Lyon image from his book about prison life, "Conversations With the Dead."

"I remember that picture was shown on the screen in class," said Etherton, who owns Tucson's prestigious Etherton Gallery. "You have to work to make sense of it, and I thought it was a fantastic picture."

In 1973, the recent graduate was working as a filmmaker in San Francisco but was still involved in photography. Between film projects he visited museums and galleries and took photography workshops and classes. He bought his first photograph that year — "Guns Are Passed to the Picket Tower" — the same image he remembered from class.

"It really stuck in my mind, so when I had a chance to buy it I did," he said. "It had meaning to me."

Etherton continued collecting art photography and began trading images with galleries, dealers and collectors. On a trip to Tucson in 1981 to visit friends and the Center for Creative Photography, he stumbled across a storefront with cheap rent near East Sixth Street and North Fourth Avenue (now Toxic Ranch Records) and decided to open a commercial gallery.

"It was very much an impulse," he said. "I figured I knew enough about photography to make it work."

Thanks to his friendship with Lyon, whom Etherton had met shortly after buying that print, the new gallery owner was off to a good start. His second show was a 20-year retrospective and film festival of Lyon's work.

"That kind of put me on the map," Etherton said. "I still can't believe I did that that soon. With my experience, that was a little audacious."

Still, people weren't flooding into the gallery, so, for three summers, Etherton packed photographs in his Volvo station wagon and took off with only a guide to American photographic collections, a road map and a major league baseball schedule.

"My goal was to see as many baseball stadiums as possible and have a successful sales trip," the baseball buff said.

Etherton, now 56, is still in contact with many of the people he met during the epic eight-week trips that jump-started his career. He joined the Association of International Photography Art Dealers in 1985 and began attending trade shows.

"Rather than me going on the road, these people come to the shows," he said of the four trade shows he does each year.

In 1988 he moved to his current location, on the second floor of the 1914 Odd Fellows Hall on Sixth Avenue, and expanded to all art mediums. In the main gallery, visitors will find work by local luminaries and internationally distinguished artists as well as everything from an 1898 portrait of Geronimo to a panorama snapped by the Mars Rover.

Local photographer Jeff Smith was enthused to have his first major art exhibit at the Etherton Gallery.

"It's such a prestigious gallery," he said. "He shows things from all over the world, and he has a really wonderful reputation."

The wood floors, white walls, track lighting and 16-foot ceiling make the 3,500-square-foot gallery feel like a museum, and so does the sales approach — there is none. The artworks, which range from $100-$35,000, do not have price tags. To find the cost of an item, a visitor may check a price list.

"I want people to have the experience of looking at the art without being influenced by price," said Etherton, who has also managed the Temple Gallery at the Temple of Music at Art since 1990.

Buyers don't even have to visit the gallery. Thanks to the Internet, Etherton sells to people the world over.

"Geography is far less important," he said. "The amount of foot traffic slows down in the summer, but the amount of business doesn't."

As a gallery owner and an accredited member of the American Society of Appraisers, he sees no shortage of rare and sought-after art. On occasion he does get attached to a piece, he admits, and he's glad for the opportunity to "live with it" in the gallery for a while.

"Every once in a while I'll sell something and I'll have real mixed feelings about it because it's so unusual that I know I'll never see it again," he said.

But he rarely adds to his personal collection. Most of what he owns, including that first Lyon photograph, has emotional significance, he said.

"Most have been given, traded or are from friends," he said.

The friendship he forged with Lyon became a model for how Etherton deals with artists.

"I tend to have to really like a person before I work with them," he said. "A gallery-artist relationship is a very personal thing. If I don't feel comfortable enough with someone to go out and get a beer, I probably won't do a show with them."

Smith can attest to Etherton's commitment — it was at the gallery owner's urging that Smith and another commercial photographer, A.T. Willett, created the gallery's current show, "Out of a Clear Blue Sky: Severe Weather Photographs."

"He's been a joy to work with," Smith said. "He's been very supportive and energetic. It has been a very positive experience so I'm very pleased."

Having a good relationship with an artist makes a sale that much sweeter, Etherton said.

"The great joy in this work is to sell a piece and hand an artist a check," he said.