Rapheal Begay, My Backyard (Hunter’s Point, AZ), 2016
I am a photographer and curator from the Navajo Nation. In Fall 2017, I graduated from the University of New Mexico with a BFA in Art Studio with a minor in Arts Management and an Undergraduate Certificate in Museum Studies. In 2018, I moved back to the reservation and began to explore and expand my sense of home. In 2020, I was named one of twelve New Mexico Artists to Know and am currently employed as a Public Information Officer with the Navajo Nation Division of Human Resources. As a member, employee, and artist from the reservation, I remain committed to an interdisciplinary approach to creative professionalism within the Southwest Region.
Based in Window Rock, Arizona, I’ve maintained my artistic practice and curatorial research as I continue to explore and collaborate within my community. As a photographer, I am seeking new ways to visualize an internal understanding to an external audience/community; and vice versa. It is within this process that I’ve embraced my role as a Navajo storyteller, and it is my hope to culturally express and creatively advocate for understanding and teaching found within the Diné way of life.