Back in 1963, Hal Gould, a successful commercial and fine-art photographer, began putting together photo shows in his role as exhibition director of the Colorado Photographic Arts Center. Building off that experience, in 1979 he opened Camera Obscura Gallery a block from the Denver Art Museum, at 1309 Bannock Street, making the gallery the first — and still one of the only — photo venues in the state. Decades later, Loretta Young-Gautier, a fine-art photographer, came on as a partner in the project.

Now that the two have decided to close the gallery, it’s appropriate that the final exhibits mounted in the place were devoted to the efforts of Gould and Young-Gautier themselves. Hal D. Gould: M Photog: A Life’s Work and Loretta Young-Gautier: Retrospective will come down after today, but not before a farewell party from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m.; sadly, this is also the day that the track lights go out for good at Camera Obscura. For more details, go to www.cameraobscuragallery.com or call 303-623-4059.
March 25-April 30, 2011