Boderra Joe is a Diné poet, journalist, and photographer. She is the author of Desert Teeth (Abalone Mountain Press, 2022). She is the recipient of fellowships from Willapa Bay AiR, the Indigenous Nations Poets (In-Na-Po), and the Bosque Redondo Memorial. She holds an MFA and BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts. She is Bit’ahnii (Folded Arms Clan), born for Tabááha (Water’s Edge Clan) and is from Bááhazł’ah (Twin Lakes), New Mexico, on the Navajo Nation.

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Time and space are both a realm in my work. They are interwoven like language and landscape. Through these elements, connection inspires with sentimentalities and admirations of where I surround myself with. It is where I feel most vulnerable, seen, and connected. Our eyes travel and admire the essence beauty of landscape and we focus on it. We breathe it in, slowly. I consider these fragments and with fragments, are stories. As a contemporary photographer, I focus solely on color, sharpness, and range. However, through these certain details, it’s all about understanding what the land is communicating. Growing up and continuing to grow on the reservation in the desert, everything around me changes dramatically because of sunlight or moonlight changes the color of the sky, the sand, the mountains, and with these moments of change, are viewpoints to be taken. With my vision and how I bring these images to life is by shooting single-shot images and merging them together to create a panorama piece. I review my images, zoom in and out of them constantly to make sure there are no distractions in the photo. Once the image is to my liking, I begin editing the colors: saturation, brightness, color selection, focus points, and so forth. I recreate my own imagination of how I see these landscapes. These edits take hours or even days. When I come to a point to pause any further edits, I sit with the image for a while and let it breathe. This allows me to breathe as well. Then, I begin my next image.