Although Emma moved to Colorado to be with her husband, she longed for the more cultured surroundings of big cities.

When Gilpin was born, her parents had to travel to a home in Austin Bluffs, some 65 miles (105 km) from their ranch at Horse Creek because this was the location that was closest to a doctor.

[2] Gilpin enjoyed exploring the outdoors as a child, and her father encouraged her to go camping and hiking in the Colorado landscape.

She enjoyed exploring the outdoors, and she would often visit General William Jackson Palmer, who took her horseback riding and walking around the surrounding areas of their home.

On these excursions Palmer would teach the Gilpin about the plants, animals, and other wildlife that they would encounter, laying the foundation for her passion for the landscape, which would become the subject of many of her photographs.

[2] In an attempt to support her growing interest in photography, Gilpin started a business raising turkeys at her family's ranch.

[2] She was able to use the proceeds from raising turkeys to fund trips to the East Coast to further her skills in photography.

While she formally studied photography on the East Coast, Gilpin worked on her autochrome skills whenever possible from home as well.

She eventually sold the turkey operation and continued to push her photography career forward.

[5] Gilpin frequently photographed Forster during the more than fifty years they were together, sometimes placing her in scenes with other people as though she were part of a tableau she happened to come upon.

[10] She later recalled that "There was practically no art interest in Colorado Springs in those early days...I remember Harvey Young was the only painter in town and I don't think there was a sculptor.

Their time as roommates was the beginning of what would become a lifelong friendship for Gilpin and Putnam, who supported each other's work and discussed art often.

When Gilpin decided she wanted to seriously study photography, her mentor Gertrude Käsebier advised her to attend the Clarence White School in New York City.

When she was well again she began working and taking photos again but never went back to school, and her period of formal study of art came to an end.

[2] The subject matter of her early works included portraits of acquaintances and landscapes local to Colorado Springs.

After this trip she began to respect and experiment more with sharp-focused photography, and became interested in creating photographic books after encountering the work of William Blake.

Her work was enhanced by visits to the Navajo reservation in Red Rock Arizona where Elizabeth Forster had taken a job as a public health nurse.

Gilpin's photographic and literary archives are now housed at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas.