Home on the Navajo Nation

This work focuses on the people of my home community, the Navajo Nation.

I grew up in Manuelito, where my earliest memories include swimming in the ditch after it rained and playing in the mountains with my cousins when we were kids. It’s important to me to capture those everyday moments that define my experience of this place. I hope my son, Kylian, will get to create his own memories in the Navajo homeland where I grew up.

Historically, the Navajo Nation has been underrepresented in mainstream narratives- our stories have very often been told by outsiders, and routinely stripped of nuance and context. But through my work on assignments for publications from The Navajo Times to The New York Times, I’ve been able to meet people across my reservation, which stretches nearly 30,000 square miles across the New Mexico-Arizona border and has some of the most stunning landscapes in the country.

I’ve documented individuals riding their horses to cast their vote at the polls during election day, an elder living in a family-made hut for the past year after her mobile home burned down in a fire, Naiomi Glass riding her skateboard on sandstone. Through that work, I have been able to make new friends and learn even more about the people who also call Navajo Nation home. These photos and the people featured in them are my tribute to our community.

Artist Bios

Sharon Chischilly

Sharon Chischilly is an independent visual journalist based in the Navajo Nation. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, NBC News, and more. Sharon will be receiving her degree in journalism and mass communications in Spring 2024 from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Sharon focuses on documenting stories from her community that are often underrepresented and underreported.

Organizations

Photoville

Founded in 2011 in Brooklyn, NY, Photoville was built on the principles of addressing cultural equity and inclusion, which we are always striving for, by ensuring that the artists we exhibit are diverse in gender, class, and race.

In pursuit of its mission, Photoville produces an annual, city-wide open air photography festival in New York City, a wide range of free educational community initiatives, and a nationwide program of public art exhibitions.

By activating public spaces, amplifying visual storytellers, and creating unique and highly innovative exhibition and programming environments, we join the cause of nurturing a new lens of representation.

Through creative partnerships with festivals, city agencies, and other nonprofit organizations, Photoville offers visual storytellers, educators, and students financial support, mentorship, and promotional & production resources, on a range of exhibition opportunities.

For more information about Photoville visit, www.photoville.com