Biography

Born in 1950 in Alaska Territory, Kirk Gittings has resided in New Mexico for 40 years. He first studied photography at the University of New Mexico in the 1970's and ultimately received a Master of Fine Arts degree in photography from the University of Calgary, Alberta Canada in 1983. Since graduate school, he has taught and written extensively on photography and become one of the most widely published, exhibited and successful architectural photographers in the Southwest. His commercial architectural photography regularly appears in national periodicals and books, while his art work is represented in many museum, corporate and private collectons in the S.W. In addition, he is currently an adjunct professor at UNM, and an instructor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, teaching architectural photography. He has received many awards including a major grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to photograph New Mexico's historic churches. In 1992 he was nominated for the AIA's GOLD MEDAL in PHOTOGRAPHY. His first book CHACO BODY, with poet V.B. Price about the Anasazi ruins at Chaco Canyon, has been critically acclaimed as a major contribution to regional art.