While giving a tour of his newly-opened art space in Oak Bluffs, the Crossroads Gallery, Michael Blanchard described it as a place of healing. A moment later a woman walked into the gallery and proved this.

After some initial pleasantries, all pretense fell away. The woman described how her family was in the midst of a crisis, and Mr. Blanchard began to offer advice for helping a loved one in the throes of addiction. He has been there himself. Seven years ago he hit rock bottom.

“I got three DUIs in three months,” he said. “I’m not proud of it, I didn’t try, it just happened . . . they were going to send me to jail for six months, but instead a whole series of events happened, pure luck, that I ended up going to a rehab facility in Atlanta for three months.”

Mr. Blanchard considers his new gallery a meeting place

Maria Thibodeau

Mr. Blanchard considers his new gallery a meeting place

Maria Thibodeau

He got sober, but he had lost everything and was directionless.

“I used to go home at night . . . and then just wait. Just gotta make it through tonight . . . it’s not a great existence.”

At a graduation ceremony, a mention of the therapeutic power of photography piqued his interest.

“I said you know what, I’m going to try that . . . I don’t know what F-stops are and all that stuff, but I’m going to try this.”

In this experiment he found a new passion. He calls photography a connection point, a chance to go outside, to feel like he’s a part of something bigger than himself, to feel like he’s not alone.

“Suddenly your brain is like, you have something in the evening, and you’re not fighting stuff, you’re actually excited about life.”

He started to share his work on Facebook. He posts pictures to nearly 50,000 followers along with inspirational texts. His page has connected him with a global audience of fans and advice-seekers.

The Crossroads Gallery is the latest offshoot of his larger project, which melds art, text and outreach.

“There’s the whole photography piece, but the photography is like along for the ride,” he said. “I didn’t open the gallery to sit here and sell photos. That would be boring. It’s like a meeting place.”

In the off-season he hopes to open the space up for community events such as yoga and meditation. Currently Mr. Blanchard has his photography on view in the gallery. He’s a part-time resident of the Island and mostly shoots Vineyard landscapes. The images are super-saturated, sharp and luminous, enhanced by his editing process.

Crossroads Gallery is located at 57 Circuit avenue.

Maria Thibodeau

Crossroads Gallery is located at 57 Circuit avenue.

Maria Thibodeau

“Sometimes I’ll merge two exposures together, so that you can pull out the detail even in the shadows,” he said.

Alongside his own work, Mr. Blanchard has curated an exhibition called the Art of Healing. The show, which will be on view all season, features the work of artists from across the country who find therapy in art.

The Crossroads Gallery is located within Island Images, which is owned by Julian Wise. This winter Mr. Wise reached out to Mr. Blanchard about sharing the space.

“I looked around and realized that I had more space than I needed, and thought it might be judicious to look into having a partner to share the space with,” Mr. Wise said.

He continued: “I always had dreamt of using our gallery space as a community resource, and it just seemed like such a logical fit.”

Mr. Blanchard acknowledged the importance of such resources on the Island. “It’s really painful. People reach out to me all the time, there’s probably five mothers of kids who have died of heroin overdoses on the Island in the last two years,” he said.

Mr. Wise agreed: “It is a very serious issue on the Island.”

Mr. Blanchard raises funds for New Paths at Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, an outpatient addiction treatment program to help address this problem. This year he is expanding his fundraising efforts to benefit other Island organizations, donating the proceeds of his photography calendar to Rising Tide Therapeutic Equestrian Center. He also is working toward a master’s degree in psychology with the ultimate goal of becoming a licensed addiction counselor.

“I want to teach the passion part too,” Mr. Blanchard said. “If you really love something that makes you excited, you can tap into that when you’re not in your best place.”

The Crossroads Gallery is located at 57 Circuit avenue in Oak Bluffs. It is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.