Photography Dealer Goes Out on a High Note : Art: After selling his personal collection to a Tokyo museum last year for a hefty sum, Stephen White will close his gallery to concentrate on writing, collecting and curating.

After surviving 15 years in a difficult business, Los Angeles photography dealer Stephen White will close the doors of his gallery on Thursday--for the last time. White isn’t bailing out because of the sagging economy, however. Nor has a lackluster art market done him in. The end of the Stephen White Gallery at 7319 Beverly Blvd. is a measure of success.

White, 52, sold his personal collection of about 15,000 photographs and related items to the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum last year--at the peak of the photography boom--for an undisclosed sum in the low millions. The surprise sale, initiated by the Japanese, was an opportunity not to be refused by a dealer who had struggled for years to find an audience for the photography he loved. Relieved of financial burdens, he could continue to work in the field at his own pace. Now, without the demands of running a gallery, he can concentrate on collecting, writing about photography and curating exhibitions from his office at home, he said.

Since 1975, when he opened the first of five Los Angeles galleries, White has tried a variety of approaches: dealing publicly and privately, organizing exhibitions for museums, researching and writing about photographers and developments in the field. One large exhibition, “Parallels & Contrasts: Photographs From the Stephen White Collection,” appeared in Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Paris, Honolulu, San Diego and Akron, Ohio.

White is pleased to have participated in “photography’s coming of age” and its acceptance in the art world, but it is time to move on, he said. “It was satisfying to present shows in the gallery. They provided exposure for things that people hadn’t seen before and ideas that they hadn’t thought about, but it was very time consuming. The other shows that I have organized (for museums) with catalogues have had a broader impact,” he said.

Even before the Japanese purchase, White had been operating his gallery privately. “Now, it seems a natural step to stop having a gallery while continuing to work in the field,” he said.

An inveterate collector, White often added works to his personal collection when he couldn’t sell them, and he hasn’t ceased collecting. Drawers in his print cabinets at home are already full of what he describes as “images of industry and its impact on society and the environment.” His next project will be an exhibition and catalogue of that material, he said.