Joan Gentry began her photography with a gift of a Brownie Hawkeye camera while in junior high school. After several years enjoying photographing the sites of New Mexico and her family and friends therein, she grew up, found motherhood and a twin-lens reflex camera. Then a more convenient Nikon provided her with enjoyment as she used color slides to watch her children grow and to photograph the changing New Mexico landscape. In the late 60’s she discovered the joy of processing and printing B/W prints. As part of her lifelong commitment to photography, she earned a Master of Arts degree from the University of New Mexico in 1976 where she studied with Beaumont Newhall, Tom Barrow, and Anne Noggle, among a distinguished group of instructors.

Joan’s photography during college years included a major street photography project in Albuquerque and Santa Fe as well as documenting the surrounding towns such as Madrid, Golden, and the landscape of Northern New Mexico. She has a major series of work on the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and architectural studies in Los Angeles, Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Abstract light/shadow architectural work on the UNM campus in the 70’s was continued in the 80’s and 90’s. More recently she has photographed extensively in the Ancestral Pueblo areas of Southern Utah while also continuing significant landscape work. Nazraeli Press published The Anasazi Project in 2012. She has produced an ongoing series of abstract images called PhotoBlots, many made without negatives.
 
Joan’s photographs have been exhibited regularly in California, and more recently in Santa Fe, Nebraska and Arkansas. Her photographs are included in the collections of the Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon, the New Mexico History Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem, Oregon, and the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Art, St. Petersburg, Florida.

Joan lives in Santa Fe with her husband Don Kirby from whence they roam the country in a pop-top camper in pursuit of their photographic interests.