Richard Bluecloud Castaneda is a member of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian community in Scottsdale, Arizona.
In 2003, he received an Associates of Fine Arts in Two-Dimensional Arts from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
In the spring of 2007 he received a BFA in Advertising/Illustration Photography from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. In 2010 Castaneda graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute with an MFA in fine art photography and is now an active photographer in the bay area.