Joette Trofimuk

Joette Trofimuk (Age: None of your business). Heaven gained an angel on July 28, 2023.  The evening sky will shine brighter, the world will feel a little bit smaller and the ocean deeper from this day forward.  Joette Trofimuk (O’Connor), the Owner/Director of Photogenesis Gallery in Santa Fe for over 35 years left this world for another with her signature grace and dignity in her home with her small but mighty family surrounding her. 

She was born in Paterson, New Jersey and later resided in Hackettstown, New Jersey. She was the daughter of Joseph and Alice Knapik. At the age of 14, one of Hutchinson’s Babies for the best and brightest, she went to the University of Chicago.  She graduated in four years with a Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD in Political Science.  She worked at the United Nations for the Taiwanese Delegation until she returned home to care for her mother.  She then worked as a history teacher and guidance counselor at Franklin High School in New Jersey where she met the love of her life, Nicholas Trofimuk.  Sitting in the bleachers, their elbows touched, and it was written in the stars from that day forward.  They were married in 1964 and embarked on a lifetime of adventures together.  She and Nicholas traveled the world together as partners in business and life.  She ran Nicholas’ medical practice in New Jersey for twenty-five years until they embarked on yet another adventure and moved to Galisteo, NM in 1987.  After moving to New Mexico, she was the owner/director of Photogenesis Gallery that featured the work of Nicholas and other classic and modern photographers for thirty-five years. She taught herself to become one of the foremost experts in Photography, catapulting herself to the top as one of the finest galleries in the nation, writing a monthly article called “From the Gallery” for Photovision Magazine and socializing with the greats like Eduard Boubat, Willy Ronis and Henri Cartier-Bresson. She was the inspiration for Photogenesis Gallery, where people entered to appreciate the beauty that graced its walls and left as friends. Always helpful and encouraging to the budding collector and respectful and informed to the masters, her knowledge, experience, and generous nature encouraged people to return year after year. She regaled her guests to the storied pasts behind each photograph that hung on its walls.  Always quick with a quip or a quote, or helpful tips about Santa Fe (including where the bathrooms were located), her beautiful, gracious smile, unparalleled sense of humor and intellectual curiosity about people and their own history starting with “And, where are you from?”, engaged every individual that crossed the Gallery’s threshold.  Never did a person enter who did not leave as a friend.

She had only one child, Christina Alice Trofimuk O’Connor (Christy) because as she told the world, she stopped with perfection. She was a devoted wife and mother and while her accomplishments were abundant, she was a humble, beautiful soul whose greatest love was for her husband of fifty-nine years and her adoring daughter. Beautiful, intelligent and generous to a fault, she will be remembered by the tens of thousands of lives she touched throughout her lifetime, leaving each of them with a smile.

She ascribed to the teachings of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and the Power of Positive Thinking. His teachings were illuminated in every aspect of her life through her joie de vivre, kindness and generosity. Please send donations in her honor to https://guideposts.org/memorial-or-tribute-gifts/ founded by Dr. Peale with his wife Ruth Stafford Peale in 1945 to share the power of positivity.

She is survived by her husband Nicholas, her daughter Christy, her Westie Arnie, and her Grand-Westies Tristan and Norman.  A Celebration of Life will be planned at a later date. 

Remember me with smiles and laughter, for that’s how I’ll remember you all.

If you remember me with tears and sorrow, then don’t remember me at all.