Ira Gardner has been a photographer for over 30 years and was nationally certified as a commercial photographer by the Professional Photographers of America in 1995. He has taught photography, multimedia, and filmmaking for over 20 years at Spokane Falls Community College.

Ira served as chair of the Applied Visual Arts department at SFCC for eight years and also served as chair of the Northwest Region of the Society for Photographic Education and as a member of the board of directors for the Richmond Art Collective and Spokane Film Project.