Paige Pinnell was born in Macon, Georgia in 1944 and graduated from Gainesville High School in Florida. Following high school he entered the University of Florida, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography in 1967. It was at the University of Florida where he befriended and studied with the darkroom composite photographer and guru Jerry Uelsmann who was set to be a mentor in Paige’s life and career. Paige moved to New Mexico in 1969, where he received an MFA in photography and the history of photography from the University of New Mexico in 1971, under the direction of Van Deren Coke, another named mentor in Paige’s life as a photographer.

Over a 12-year period Paige taught at the University of New Mexico, the University of Florida, the University of Oregon, and the University of California, Berkeley. He hosted the Santa Fe/Dallas Photographic Workshops for twelve summers. He also taught photography at the Brunn school in Santa Fe, an alternative school for ages 10-19. He was the Curator at the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe from 1972 to 1976 and he was the Director of the Center of the Eye Gallery when it moved to Santa Fe from 1975 to 1976.

Pinnell, who passed away in 2017, embodied the passion for photography by being a photography dealer, artist, educator, and collector. Paige’s deep knowledge of and connection to photography on a national level had influence on many in the local Santa Fe community in the 1960-70’s and was integral to what would become the development of the photography market in Santa Fe at that time.