Shaun Terhune knew he was taking a risk when he opened a gallery in downtown Littleton to sell the wildlife and landscape photos he snapped during his countless hours hunting for the perfect shot in the White Mountains.
It was 2019, and the trained geologist turned humble photographer was determined to take his love of photography to the next level despite a lack of professional schooling or wide name recognition.
He opened Shaun Terhune Fine Art Photography in a storefront at 39 Main St. and hoped his work would catch on, but a year later he found himself struggling after his younger brother died in a motor vehicle accident.
A grief-stricken Terhune was so impacted by the loss that he wasn't sure he would ever grab his camera and venture out into the mountains again.
"There was a period of time when I didn't want to do photography at all. When you experience loss, food loses its flavor, the landscape loses its color, and everything is dull," he said as he recalled that painful chapter in his life.
But over time, the 39-year-old Terhune managed to work through his emotions and reached a point where he was ready to pick up his camera once again. His first photograph after his brother's death was an image of Mount Lafayette at sunset with a frozen pond and a ramshackle cabin in the foreground. He named it "Ready for Winter" and felt it resembled a painting of a scene that provided an emotional connection that he still can't explain.
"I look at that picture and I think about the time that I was trying to find myself as an artist again after dealing with that kind of a deep loss. I can't believe the colors and the emotion in that picture. It actually happens to be one that resonates with a lot of my customers," he said.
It's customers like Brad Bailey, who runs a State Farm insurance office across the street and continues to support Terhune's photography, which has attracted such a following that he's been able to turn his expanding gallery into a unique North Country experience.
"Shaun's work is impressive, and he has a great eye," said Bailey, whose office has large seasonal photos of a mother bear and cub standing on their hind legs and another popular one of a moose peeking around a tree in the woods amid a gentle snowfall.
Bailey also has a 4-foot-by-7-foot image of downtown Littleton that's filled with detail and features the winding Ammonoosuc River and covered bridge. The picture is the largest Terhune has produced and often sparks conversation when people visit Bailey's office.
"Shaun's work makes people immediately feel comfortable when they walk in the office as his work gives our office an 'above the notch' feel," he said.
Terhune's gallery is rustic, cozy, and unintimidating. His framed work adorns the walls while a variety of artifacts add to the northern New England feel of the place, from a mounted moose head and other wild animals to old wooden canoe paddles, camp axes, fishing rods, snowshoes and an antique runner sled that's been converted into a bookshelf. He sells wooden signs with northern New Hampshire town names and landmarks and other locally handcrafted items as well.
Terhune wanted a warm place that inspires him, overwhelms the senses, and simply makes him happy. He also wanted to create an experience for visitors by designing a gallery that's more than just white walls and a few pictures.
"I want my gallery to be more approachable to the everyday person or the family with young kids or people with dogs or people coming through carrying an ice cream cone. I don't want it to feel exclusive. That's just my own feeling about the world of art. I think a lot of the art world takes itself too seriously and they focus on selling extremely expensive things to an exclusive class of people," he said.
Terhune plans to add another 2,500 square feet to his gallery this year, bringing his total space to about 4,000 square feet. The expanded area will be dominated by his photos with a sprinkling of vintage items, but he's also planning to incorporate a coffee shop.
The gallery is everything he hoped it would be and more. The success is something he never could have imagined 10 years ago when he decided to turn his passion for pictures into a career.
Born and raised in northern Vermont, Terhune always had an interest in photography and recalls "fooling around" with 35 mm film equipment as a teenager.
"I could tell there was a creative outlet there that I really enjoyed, but I didn't go anywhere with it at the time even though I felt a tingle of interest and I really loved it. I was focused on rocks and gems and earth science. I had in mind that I would go on to study geology and develop a career as a geologist," he said.
Terhune pursued a degree in geology and worked as a geologist professionally for several years, but his work related to imaging. He performed aerial photography, thermal infrared scanning and other forms. He traveled a lot for work, making a few trips to the Arctic, but the more he traveled the more he fell in love with his personal camera.
"It all connects because my career as a geologist was an outdoor job and it was a travel job, and photography goes hand in hand with travel. I eventually came to love photography so much that I started looking at it as a viable direction for me to pursue as a career and I left my geology career behind to do that," he said.
Terhune began making the switch from geologist to professional photographer in 2015 when he moved from Texas to a cabin in Lisbon on the edge of Sugar Hill and tried to make a dollar any way that he could.
Many of the popular images that he still sells today depicting moose, lupines, black bears and other wildlife and nature were shot in Sugar Hill. "It's just a special area," he said.
Terhune initially hustled doing commercial work, including jobs for real estate agents and architectural photography, and was eventually hired to guide amateur photographers on expeditions for National Geographic before opening the gallery.
He admits that his path to becoming a professional photographer is unconventional. Terhune never went to photography school and he never climbed the ranks in the world of art through gallery showings.
"I began to listen to the feedback that I was getting on a local level from people that really loved my work and at the same time I was falling deeply in love with Littleton and Main Street," said Terhune, who now lives in Littleton.
When the storefront opened up, Terhune said he and his wife, Elizabeth, "got this crazy idea" to take over the space and print his photography in a more serious way than he ever had before.
"I'm growing locally because of how many people really love New Hampshire. People are fanatical about the White Mountains especially. Most of my work is centered on the White Mountains specifically, not New Hampshire at large or New England at large," he said.
Terhune splits his time between running the gallery and spending time in the field armed with his camera.
Bailey, the insurance agent and Terhune photography fan, often stops by the gallery to see what he's working on.
"When Shaun first opened, he had a vision of what he wanted people to experience when they walked through the door and he has completely captured that vision. Locals and tourists feel like they are immersed in the beauty of the White Mountains when they view his work -- from mountain vistas to baby black bear cubs up in a pine tree," he said.
While Terhune may have turned his love of pictures into a job, his goal is to freeze a moment in time that evokes emotion and connects him to an experience much like the photograph of Mount Lafayette after losing his brother.
"If the picture doesn't make you feel something, feel an emotion or have a bit of nostalgia or stir you up in some way," he said, "then it's hard for me to look at that as anything other than an interesting or informative picture."