This Gallery Has Championed Photography as Art for 50 Years

Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon, is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a nonprofit champion of photography as fine art. Founded in 1975 as the Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts by a collective of five co-founders—Ann Hughes, Bob DiFranco, Craig Hickman, Terry Toedtemeier, and Chris Rauschenberg—the gallery opened in a small storefront on Lovejoy Street when photography was not yet widely recognized in institutional spaces. It has never charged admission or application fees, relying on volunteer labor and a philosophy of free access. Over five decades, the gallery moved through three locations before settling in Portland's historic DeSoto Building, which it now owns.