Cheryle St. Onge was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. She grew up on college campuses as the the only child of a Physics professor and a painter. She received an M.F.A. from Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, Massachusetts.

St. Onge's work focus on the the crossover of art and science and photography's abilty to distill our sense of time and curiosity. She makes pictures predominantly with an 8 x 10 view camera and considers her work a collaborative process.

Her photographs have been widely exhibited, most notably at London’s National Portrait Gallery, Princeton University, Griffin Museum, University of Rhode Island, Massachusetts College of Art, Rick Wester Fine Arts, and with the American Institute of Architects traveling exhibition. She has received numerous awards and residences, among them a 2009 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a Critical Mass Finalist Exhibition Award, Polaroid Materials Artist Support Grant, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Graduate Fellowship, and was named one of the ‘Top 50 Photographers’ in the country by Time Magazine.

Her photographs are in many private and public collections, including the the University of New Mexico Art Museum, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Cassilhaus Collection, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Her work has been widely published, including features in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Photograph Magazine, Vice, Time Magazine, Juxtapoz Magazine, Time Magazine, The Guardian, and Oxford American.

She been on the faculty at Phillips Exeter Academy, Clark University, Maine College of Art, and the University of New Hampshire. Ms. St. Onge created and taught the University of New Hampshires's Art and Art History Dept's first online curriculum beginning in 2011. She divides her time between Durham, New Hampshire and coastal Maine.