Joan Elisabeth Biren, also known as JEB, was born in Washington, D.C. on July 13, 1944. She has gained recognition as an outstanding documentary artist, and for over twenty years has been photographing, publishing and producing videos that chronicle the lives and times of lesbian and gay people.

As a video producer for the 1993 March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation, JEB was responsible for sending a live six-camera switched feed to giant screens on the Mall and around the world via satellite. Many commentators noted that this innovative use of the technology was brilliantly accomplished. JEB produced and wrote "A Simple Matter of Justice," the official video of the March. This one-hour piece was voted "Best Video" at the Reel Affirmations Film Festival in Washington, D.C.

With Moonforce Media, the company of which she is president, JEB produces, directs and edits videos. Recent projects include tapes on sexual harassment and city youth in performance. Moonforce Media and JEB have released "Lesbian Physicians on Practice, Patients and Power," which is widely used in medical schools, and For Love and for Life: The 1987 march on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, which was broadcast on public television.

JEB is the author of two groundbreaking volumes of photography. "Eye to Eye: Portraits of Lesbians (1979)" is the pioneering photographic book that made lesbian existence and courage visible as never before. "Making a Way: Lesbians Out Front (1987)" is a beautiful, vigorous affirmation of lesbian lives that dramatically portrays 125 women. JEB's photographic work is in the collection of the Library of Congress, has been exhibited at the Lincoln Center in New York and published extensively in books, periodicals and newspapers, on music album covers, as well as on note cards, post cards and posters. Her multi-image slide presentations, which have toured throughout the United States, include the historical and autobiographical work OUT OF BOUNDS: A LESBIAN JOURNEY.

Biren has a B.A. with honors in political science from Mt. Holyoke College and an M.A. in communications from the American University. After three years in a doctoral program at Oxford University in England, she returned to the U.S. and taught herself photography working in a camera store and on a small-town newspaper. Since 1975, JEB has supported herself as a freelance photographer and independent videomaker.