David was born in Maine in 1955 and raised in Harpswell; his home until he moved to South Freeport in 2014. The second son of Stephen and Samuella Etnier. His interest in photography came to the front in 1980 when he attended two workshops at the then Maine Photographic Workshops in Rockport. Both devoted solely to black and white photography, film processing and printing. He moved to Boston the following year and began work as an assistant at Jack Richmond’s commercial photography studio; becoming the studio manager soon thereafter. Moving on from Richmond’s studio; he then worked as a freelance assistant for commercial photographers all over Boston before returning to Maine and setting up his own photo business in Portland in 1985. From there, and from his father’s former painting studio at their family home along Old Cove in Harpswell, David did commercial work and his own personal work up through 1994. That year he ran for and was elected to the Maine State House of Representatives where he served four consecutive terms. From 2003 to 2011 David was the Deputy Commissioner at Maine’s Department of Marine Resources. Since that time he has primarily worked in the marine world as a boat broker, yacht finisher and vessel captain.
In recent years he has been utilizing the U.S.C.G. Master’s license he obtained in 1992 captaining ferry and excursion vessels along Maine’s coast.
His work is in the permanent collections of the Portland Museum of Art, the Maine State Museum in Augusta, the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Andrew Wyeth’s Chadds Ford studio, the University of New England and the Judy Glickman Lauder collection as well as other private collections.
He has had his photographs exhibited in a solo exhibition at the Portland Museum of Art in 2012 (Making Faces/Making Art) and also in a group exhibit in 2016 at the University of New England in Portland (please see “Reviews” section on website for details). In 2023 he has exhibited at Cove Street Arts in Portland (Explorations) and the Maine Art Gallery in Wiscasset (Generations).
