Instructor Bio

Erika Gentry is an internationally exhibited, interdisciplinary artist working within photography, video and installation. Her projects explore issues of identity as expressed through the use of technology and place. A self proclaimed Francophile, she exhibits and travels internationally and has been an artist in residence in France funded in part by the Tenot Foundation and Center for Cultural Innovation. She also designs photography workshops for intermediate photographers in France and San Francisco: www.photographyinfrance.com and www.erikagentry.com.

Gentry specializes in lens based media (video, photography) digital imaging, multi media arts, education and fine art printing in the Bay Area. An early advocate of the creative digital domain, she has been teaching and presenting electronic arts and photography nationwide since 1996 and has been a consultant to many of the industry’s leading photographers. She has worked in freelance visual arts, magazine and book picture editing, art direction, advanced digital post-production, web design and as a curator and educator. She has taught one-on-one and group courses at corporations and colleges such as The Rochester Institute of Technology, The San Francisco Art Institute, Foothill College, City College of San Francisco and Rayko Photo Center. She is currently a full-time faculty member at the City College of San Francisco.

Gentry grew up in Portland Oregon and received her Bachelor of Arts degree from The School of Journalism and Communications at the University of Oregon in Eugene. She completed her master of fine arts degree at The College of Imaging Arts and Sciences from New York’s Rochester Institute of Technology. She has served as a Director on the National Board and the West Regional Board for The Society for Photographic Education where in 2012 she co-chaired it’s first sold out national conference in San Francisco. She has also served on the advisory board of Lens Culture Magazine and is former Vice President to the Board of Directors for Fotovision.org. Currently she is a member of the SF Camerawork Board of Directors. She is a twice-honored candidate for the CENTER’s Excellence in Teaching Award and enjoys sharing her knowledge of photo history as well as traditional and digital processes with her students.