Photographer Christie Jenkins is going out of business Saturday, but has a thing or two to say.

Photographer Christie Jenkins is having to close down the photography studio she opened 21 months ago at Dolores and Fifth in Carmel. She put out a going out of business sign that reflected her outspoken character: "Thank You" it heralds. "I am the 9th gallery to close in 21 months. Yikes! But a great experience. Lastly, to the very few of you who've been specifically unkind—shame on you."

And that suggests some of the drama her work, which she hung throughout the 500-square-foot studio, has stirred up. Most of the high-visibility photographs in her portfolio come from the 1980s.

She's taken a picture of a younger Donald Trump, in a dark suit and talking on a corded phone, looking like Gordon Gekko. She's taken pictures of food spreads that are ready for the close-ups in, say, Better Homes & Gardens. She's taken pictures of ice skaters in flamboyant and colorful costume, of Daryl Hannah, Christopher Reeve and Elizabeth Taylor, of spa amenities for brochures and male models for cologne ads.

It's the male models, though, that have earned her '80s photographs the most attention, particularly the million-selling cheesecake calendar "A Woman Looks at Men's BUNS." Which is just as it sounds—pictures of men's butts. She had that calendar lit up prominently at night at the studio gallery.

But those types of photos garnered unwanted attention at her Christie Jenkins Studio. She wrote in an email about one facet of it:

"Whilst many saw this unique space for what it was—a once famous photographer showing all the celebrities and Olympic athletes she'd been hired to work with in a long career—others called it 'a gay store.'

OK, maybe it should have been in SF. But there was much to see inside. Yep, the occasional gay couple who strolled in were excited—after all, many had come out to their moms with the BUNS Calendars on their coffee table.

And men in underwear and speedos (ads that ran in the UK, not in America). A man in the shower. Gorgeous Greg Louganis diving. Even Christopher Reeve in the nude. But also faces of Donald Trump, Charles Schulz, David Cassidy, Brian Boitano (a good friend of the photog), 80 more famous faces."

"When I first opened," she says, "I had more of the men in underwear art near the front of the store and it was suggested by many walking by that I might want to move those to the back. No one says why. I did it."

She says there have been detractors, but that she's done portraits to remain in business, including for the son of the pastor of her church, Carmel Presbyterian. But most of the portrait business she ascribes to "beautiful young people" who would like to be models and older people wanting portraits to post on Match.com.

"I make that person look as beautiful as they can possibly look," Jenkins says. "I've done a lot of portraits and they call me 10 minutes later and they've put it on Facebook or Match.com, and they've gotten more responses than they've ever gotten."

The demise of her store isn't all predicated on people not agreeing with her subject matter. She also blames patrons.

"That first few months there were people coming who were wise about art and were collectors, read the descriptions on the wall, asked intelligent questions," she says. "Now Carmel has your person in a hoodie, flip-flops, going to the beach and wanting ice cream. It's really upsetting. They've not been taught to go into art galleries and appreciate and learn what they like."

There are more factors. She blames a lack of infrastructure support from the city, which she says levied seven fines on her store that she thinks originated from neighbors. And the media, which she claimed, last year, failed to write about her July 2014 show Hey Gorgeous in favor of covering Car Week, the Carmel Bach Festival, Carmel Art Association and the Westons: "What do I have to do?" she exclaimed in an email.

She lives two blocks away from the store in Carmel and will continue with her photography portrait practice. She's not giving up: not on Carmel nor photography nor with the prospect of sharing her work with the public. This isn't the last you've heard of Christie Jenkins.

Christie Jenkins Photography & Celebrity Gallery last day is this Saturday (she refers it to as the "last chance for the open-minded") at Dolores and Fifth, Carmel. 915-4519.