CLEVELAND, Ohio -- On July 13, Angelo Merendino presided over the first night of what was supposed to be a 10-week-long photography exhibit at The Gathering Place in Westlake. A standing-room-only crowd of a few hundred people gathered at the cancer support center for a look at more than 50 stark black-and-white images Merendino took that chronicled his late wife Jennifer's experience as a breast cancer patient.

On Thursday, just six days later, The Gathering Place took the exhibit down.

Gathering Place Executive Director Eileen Saffran and Merendino, a Cleveland native who lives in New York City, spoke by phone Wednesday. Saffran told Merendino that the exhibit would have to be removed, he said.

"She said she wasn't aware of the exhibition [beforehand], which is kind of hard to believe," he said Friday. "She said that people were upset by it."

A statement on the center's website explaining the decision has been met with a barrage of comments criticizing the move.

"I know the Gathering Place does exemplary work on behalf of their clients," wrote one commenter. "I have referred numerous families to them as a friend and as a social worker for over 20 years in the Cleveland community . . . it is truly frustrating to see the unprofessional manner in which this situation was handled."

Another person, a photographer who attended a previous exhibit of Merendino's work in Cleveland, wrote, "The images are moving and sometimes hard to look at. It really puts you in the place of a patient and their family, it shows you the day-to-day struggles. My heart goes out to Angelo and his family."

The reaction to the exhibit turned out to be a "very emotional" one in the days that followed the opening reception, said Kristina Austin, director of community relations and marketing at the center.

"For the Gathering Place, it's always our primary concern to tend to the needs of participants who come to us for healing and encouragement," she said. Out of concern for the cancer patients who take part in classes and use the center's resources, and for the volunteers, many of whom are cancer survivors, the exhibit had to go, she said.

"We didn't remove it because it's not an amazing and exceptionally powerful exhibit," she said. "We removed it because of the reaction of our participants."

Merendino, a Cleveland native who lives in New York City, on Friday said he understands the mission of The Gathering Place, and the center's reason behind not wanting to display the exhibit, donations from which were to go to the Jennifer Merendino Memorial Fund and The Gathering Place.

What is hard to understand, Merendino said, is why no one thought to express those concerns to him last year during the initial discussions surrounding the plans for the exhibit, and after a staff member approved all of the photos he had emailed.

"They knew this was coming," he said.

Last fall, Merendino's photos were well-received during an exhibit at the 78th Street Studios in Cleveland's Detroit Shoreway neighborhood.

Jennifer Merendino, a Bath Twp. native, died one week after that exhibit closed. She was 40.

Even before the fall exhibit, Merendino had talked excitedly about upcoming plans to join forces with The Gathering Place to showcase his work.

"It's important for us to share this story and what we've been going through," he said at the time.

Doug Alsdorf of Columbus attended last week's opening night reception at The Gathering Place West.

The crowd was a "good mix of people, all clearly who had been touched by cancer," said Alsdorf, whose wife, Laura Behrendt, died in May 2011 of breast cancer at age 43. "I though the people who were there were moved. There was definitely emotion in the room.

Alsdorf, who on Friday found out about the shut-down exhibit from Merendino's Facebook page, called the decision the mark of poor leadership and poor communication. "At the very least, they should compensate him for all of his effort and work," he said.

A committee has been formed that will vet future exhibits more thoroughly, Austin said.

"We should have made the decision prior to putting up the exhibit, and that did not happen," said Austin, who conceded that the center erred in the handling of its decision.

"We have apologized to Angelo," she said. While it is a very important exhibit, Austin said, "It's something that shouldn't be in the gallery. We're a cancer support-center first, and a gallery second."

Merendino enlisted the help of local photographer and custom-printer Matthew Fehrmann, who tried to retrieve the photos on Friday, but could not because he didn't have signed permission to do so.

The photos will be stored at The Gathering Place until Merendino can arrange for their removal. Merendino said he won't be back in town until a family gathering in Akron next weekend.

"This is depressing," he said. "It hurts. This is my wife and her legacy, and something that has helped people."

-- Plain Dealer photographer Gus Chan contributed to this story.