Stacia Spragg-Braude

b.

1968

From:

Indianapolis, IN

Based:

Corrales, NM

Position:

Freelance photographer

Education:

MA, Photojournalism, University of Missouri

Background:

Spragg-Braude moved to New Mexico 10 years ago to work as a staff photographer at the Albuquerque Tribune, but recently left to pursue her personal projects full time. Since her move West she has worked with the Begay family, and her resulting photography has been honored with a New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities grant and was a finalist in the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund. Receiving her masters at the Missouri School of Journalism, Stacia also taught visual communications and photography at the American University in Bulgaria, and assisted Eddie Adams and worked at his Barnstorm workshop.

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Work by Stacia Spragg-Braude

Gold Tooth Begay is laid to rest on his family's land on the Navajo reservation. Gold Tooth died at age 105 after giving his daughters the mission to return the Churro sheep to his family and the Navajo people.

#15 | Navajo

United by a mission to rescue the Churro, an ancient breed of sheep facing near extinction in the 1970's, the Begay family has lived and died within a few miles radius of the Navajo Reservation in the heart of the American West, depending on each other and the land to sustain their livelihood and native culture.With the passing of family elders Mary and Gold Tooth Begay, the next generation has taken up the torch in an uncertain time as American Indians around the country struggle to overcome poverty, unemployment, alcoholism, and the terrible question of how to marry traditional customs with living in a modern world. From within this void, the Begay's have bound themselves together to face the future and attempt to breathe life into the Navajo saying of "walking in beauty."