About the Artist

Jerry Jacka was born in the early 1903s and grew up on his family’s desert homestead north of Phoenix, Arizona. In 1953 he and his young bride honeymooned in northern Arizona, where he enthusiastically photographed the Painted Desert. In 1958, Arizona Highways magazine ran one of those photos. That was the beginning of a relationship with the magazine which has spanned several decades. Jerry worked at a state agency in planning and research until 1974, when Arizona Highways devoted almost the entire February issue to Jerry's feature on prehistoric pottery. Jacka then decided to make photography his career. His wife Lois eagerly joined him, and the dynamic team began documenting the exciting artwork being created by Native American artists. In 2000, the Heard Museum featured an exhibit which celebrated Jacka's brilliant work depicting the Native people and landscapes of Arizona.