Born in Manhattan to a filmmaking father and a Holocaust survivor mother, Doniphan and Nicholas Blair both attended the progressive Dalton School where they studied art, photography and filmmaking, Nicholas often acting in his brother’s experimental films.

In 1974, Doniphan enrolled in film at the San Francisco Art Institute and Nicholas soon followed, not surprisingly, albeit to study photography. Together, they started an artist collective turned commune and organized Ancient Currents Gallery, an art gallery specializing in multicultural art, from modern work on international themes to Mexican Huichol art, Peruvian textiles and New Guinean sculpture. Concurrently, they collaborated on Doniphan's film projects including the feature Sammy Delirium and short Home Movie, while Nicholas earned his MFA in photography.

Their relationship continues to this day, as they work on both commercial and non-commercial projects through A Media, a video, graphic and web production studio.