Gretjen Helene was born in Fairbanks, Alaska in the dead of winter and spent 18 years in the snow drifts with frozen toes and excellent survival skills. Throughout those years her family would journey outside to catch a ray of sun and so began her interest in experiencing worldly adventures and bringing other cultures and customs into everyday view. She worked for the Fairbanks Daily News Minor in Alaska as an intern and later managed the Berkeley Beacon press as Head Photographer for Emerson College, Boston. She moved to Boston in 1999 and began seriously considering her photography as a career when she gained attention and momentum in the field after returning from photographing in Nepal. Her travels have taken her to Australia, Russia, Nepal, Thailand, Ecuador, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Canada and throughout the continental United States. She received her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Photography at the Art Institute of Boston and began teaching there following graduation. Gretjen was the founding director and producer for the publication Taking In wherein juried photography comprises a feature of the best work produced annually at The Art Institute of Boston. Gretjen retired teaching in 2008 for the sake of personal work which has proved successful as she has completed showcases of her photography, installation and poetry work in Alaska, New York and around the Boston area. She continues her personal photography projects while working for patrons involved in musical groups, theater performances, weddings, family events, non-profit events and spontaneous creative endeavors in photojournalism and documentary photography.