The more telling thing is that Thomas Hawk isn't even his real legal name (Google it) so is in BLATANT violation of the Google+ real name policy.
Feel free to report it. I personally don't see why he should get a free pass on this.
I wouldn't report it because I try not to be an utter prat, on the internet or IRL. But it is a telling instance of Google's hypocrisy on the issue of pseudonymity.
Have a look at Openphoto, it's an open source (kickstarter funded) option to do exactly what you're talking about
This latest enthusiasm has me puzzled though. I mean Google+ looks like it's great for sharing photos of limited interest that aren't necessarily public. But it doesn't strike me as a good place to present your art to the world.
I'm surprised that no one is selling turnkey photosharing sites that work off an Amazon backend and that operators can skin with their own branding and mix and match galleries and slideshow Javascript, and other features.