Meg Gerken was born in Oelwin, Iowa in 1942. She earned her Bachelor of Arts at the University of Chicago in Literature and Art in 1964. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Photography in 1983 from the School of Art Institute in Chicago and a Master of Arts in Russian Literature from the University of Chicago in 1968. Meg started as an Associate Professor of Humanities and then of photography at Wilbur Wright College in Chicago in 1968. She worked there for over 30 years, serving as Head of the Photography Department for most of that time.
Meg started a career as a freelance photographer in 1978. She was a member of the Illinois Arts Council in 1981 and 1986. Her selected exhibitions include "Visual Gossip" at Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, Ill. in 1979; Il Torrione in Ferrara, Italy in 1980; "Celebration of the Human Family" at the John Hancock Center in Chicago in 1980; "Two Families" at the Palmer Square Arts Fair in Chicago in 1985; and "Bedrooms" at the Danzibao Gallery in Montreal in 1986. Her publications include "Meg Gerken, 'Two Families,'" in City in Winter, 1986, and photos in the Chicago History Museum's 1989 book and online archive "Changing Chicago: Photodocumentary."
Her work is in the collections of the Art institute, the Museum of Contemporary photography and the Chicago Historical society. Much of her work involved large families or living groups, some of which can be seen here:
https://www.artic.edu/artists/34632/meg-gerken 
