Add a gallery for every user in a block I want to be able to add a gallery for each user.
I understand how to create a content type. I considered building an image content type. I then thought I could add a view which would only display each user. 

Is this best practice for creating a gallery for each user?

I am using Drupal 7, if this makes any difference.

I can get it working in a view but it doesn't seem to work in a block
Yes, you are on a right path. The Views module, and content types can be used to build a simple gallery for a user.


Create a content type called Image Gallery.
Add a image field to above content type.
Create a view called user gallery.
Filter by Content Type Image Gallery.
Filter by Node author: Logged in user, if you want to show logged in users Gallery.
Add the contextual filter Author UID, if you want to dynamically pass the user ID from the URL and filter the Gallery Images.
For above your view page path should be user-gallery/% where % will be user id.