Rapheal Begay is a “visual storyteller who uses cultural landscape photography and oral storytelling to activate, reference, and preserve memory and understanding found within the Diné way of life.”
Rapheal Begay is a photographer, curator, and creative collaborator based in the Navajo Nation. Named one of 12 New Mexico Artists to Know in 2020 by Southwest Contemporary, he is also the recipient of the 2021-22 Goodman Aspiring Artist Fellowship and is currently a research associate at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe. In 2017, he obtained a BFA in studio art with a minor in arts management and a certificate in museum studies from the University of New Mexico.
“With my camera, I move about land and community to document relationships, visual blessings, and political gatherings within the Navajo Nation. Inspired by ideas of visual sovereignty and land-based knowledge, I describe my work as the everyday response to my surroundings from an Indigenous point of view or a vernacular response.
“In short, I am a visual storyteller who uses cultural landscape photography and oral storytelling to activate, reference, and preserve memory and understanding found within the Diné way of life.”
Window Rock, Arizona | raphealbegay.com | @rapheal_begay
