Ingeborg Gerdes 1938-2020

Born and raised in Germany, Ingeborg Gerdes immigrated to the United States in 1965. She first lived in Philadelphia, then moved to San Francisco in 1968 where she received her Master of Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1970. Ingeborg’s work encompassed a wide range of subjects. Making photographs corresponded with her passion for travel, which took her to Europe, Mexico and Asia. Her fascination with the American West began with a road trip to Nevada in 1982 and became a decade-long project. Throughout her life, Ingeborg maintained close ties to Europe, which is evident in much of her work, and frequently traveled between her home in the San Francisco Bay Area and Berlin, Germany.

She received two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, participated in two Photography Survey grants, and participated in numerous one-person and group exhibitions, both in the U.S. and abroad. Her photographs are in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Norton Simon Museum, the Portland Art Museum, the Berkeley Art Museum, The Fogg Art Museum, the Sheldon Museum of Art, The Jordan Schnitzer Museum at the University of Oregon, and the Bibliotheque National, Paris. She taught photography for over two decades at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Ingeborg Gerdes passed away peacefully at her home in Emeryville, CA on June 20th, 2020. Her photographic archives are housed in the Special Collections of the McHenry Library, at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She will be remembered as a remarkably talented photographer, influential educator, and as a dear sister, aunt, colleague, and friend. This website will remain online for those wishing to explore Ingeborg’s work and as a testament to her legacy.