Author

Alejandra Rubio - Yavapai-Apache Nation

I am a visual artist who works with photography and mix-media. I often embed myself into different cultures and subcultures; I use my art to share their voices, experiences, and inflections, giving viewers a respectful glimpse into their unique worldviews, concerns, and aspirations. I am a member of the Yavapai-Apache Nation. I grew up in Camp Verde, a rural river valley in northern Arizona, where I learned the value of the interdependent relationships between land, culture, and community. As a result, I will always appreciate talking with people and learning about them, no matter where they come from or who they are. I believe in patience, listening, generosity, and empathy rather than judgment or imposing individual expectations upon individuals. The breadth and diversity of my work include photographs covering brothels, hotel living, drugs, protests, biker gangs, and Native American ceremonies. My work provides an analytical, compassionate, and uniquely Native American lens from which to view, engage, learn and share the full range of human emotion and experience across cultures and subcultures — off the reservation and on, navigating the complexity of the human spirit in private, intimate, and honest settings, affording my audience a respectful view into the lives and socially defined relationships of people who would otherwise remain invisible, unknown, or isolated in the shadows.