I started out in photography by taking a class at a community college in Beginning Digital Photography where I obtained the basic knowledge of working with a digital camera. After practicing and learning post processing techniques, I began to travel and explored various areas in Arizona, looking to capture the beauty of my state. My passion grew more and more and I started to feel a connection with Mother Earth and Father Sky.
As I got further along into my photography, I decided to enter some of my work into the Arizona State Fair Photography Competition and won several ribbons for my work, this gave me the confidence to start printing and selling my work at various Native American art shows.
After two years of photographing landscapes, I was ready to give portrait photography a try. I found portraiture to be a little more challenging, it required me to learn more about lighting and posing. I had to pay more attention to composition and the details in the image, and learn how to capture the spirit of the individual in the portrait. Now, I often seek to incorporate a human subject into my images. Coming from a culturally rich background, it became important to me to capture the beauty of my people, The Dinéh (Navajo) and share it with the rest of the world.
My journey in photography has evolved throughout my career. In the beginning, my focus started on landscape photography, follow by portrait photography and now I’m currently focused on nightscape photography and fine art story telling photography. It’s important to me to continue to live and grow and find new ways to express my work. My current goal is to create more cohesive bodies of work, images that have more of meaning to me and my people, drawing inspiration from my own cultural experiences and teachings, and create images that come from the Navajo Creation Stories. I like that it’s more challenging and that I have more control over my creations and can express my work in my own perspective, and present it in the way, I see it in my own mind.
I was born and raised on the Navajo reservation and grew up in Northern Arizona, in a small town called Kayenta. I currently live in Prescott Valley, Arizona and have lived and worked here for 21 years. I attended school in Tempe, Arizona and graduated with a Associates Degree in Graphic Design and have worked as a graphic designer for 12 years. I have been a landscape and portrait photographer for 17 years and been selling my work at various art shows for 16 years.
"I have known forty years-worth of American Indian Art – twenty of them directing the Prescott Indian Art Market (PIAM) held at Sharlot Hall Museum. My life was privileged by knowing many artists behind some of the most incredible art forms you can find. Beyond this joy, once in a while, an art piece would catch my eye. In rarer moments, a very few of these opened a door and pulled in my heart.
Priscilla Tacheney is labeled “Photographer” – a true art form that is more often considered as a hobby, a commercial profession, or something less than the “art” title given to painters, carvers, jewelers, or potters. I have often heard the lowly critique – “Anyone can push a button and take a photograph.”
These critics have NEVER seen a Priscilla Tacheney work-of-art! I could not walk away from her reflecting “Corn Pollen Path.” Three words: It haunted me. I spent a bunch of my kid years on the Big REZ, and this artwork pressed every memory, feeling, experience I had. That is what art does!
Art is an experience, and Priscilla’s images are real, but also spiritual and transforming. She is worthy enough to be part of the great “shadow catchers,” the likes of the century-gone Edward S. Curtis and the beloved Ansel Adams." - Sandra L. Lynch, PhD., Adjunct Curator of Anthropology, Sharlot Hall Museum
AWARDS
SANTA FE INDIAN MARKET
Honorable Mention - Photography ,2019 SWAIA Arts Competition
Honorable Mention - Photography ,2018 SWAIA Arts Competition
Honorable Mention - Photography ,2015 SWAIA Arts Competition
NAVAJO NATION FAIR
Second Place - Graphics, 2019 Nizhoni Arts Competition
First Place - Photography, 2017 Nizhoni Arts Competition
Second Place - Photography, 2017 Nizhoni Arts Competition
First Place - Photography, 2016 Nizhoni Arts Competition
SHARLOT HALL MUSEUM
Third Place - 2-D Fine Art , 2021 Prescott Indian Art Market Arts Competition
SEDONA ARTS FESTIVAL
First Place - Best of Show in Photography, 2016 Arts Competition
ARIZONA STATE MUSEUM
First Place - Award of Excellence 2-D Technique, 2014 Southwest Indian Art Fair Arts Competition
First Place - Award of Excellence 2-D Technique, 2012 Southwest Indian Art Fair Arts Competition
First Place - Acquisitions Award, 2009 Southwest Indian Art Fair Arts Competition
MUSEUM OF NORTHERN ARIZONA
Honorable Mention - 2-D Fine Art , 2022 Heritage Festival of Arts and Culture
Honorable Mention - 2-D Fine Art, 2009 Navajo Festival Arts Competition
ARIZONA STATE FAIR
First Place - Small Black and White, 2007 Photography Competition
1st Honorable Mention - Small Black and White, 2007 Photography Competition
1st Honorable Mention - Small Black and White, 2007 Photography Competition
1st Honorable Mention - Small Color, 2007 Photography Competition
2nd Honorable Mention - Small Color, 2007 Photography Competition
2nd Honorable Mention - Small Color, 2007 Photography Competition
PUBLICATIONS
COWBOYS & INDIANS MAGAZINE - February/March 2022
NATIVE AMERICAN ART MAGAZINE - April/May 2024
NATIVE AMERICAN ART MAGAZINE - August/September 2024