A Brief Bio:

Photographer and teacher, Steve Dzerigian moved from a background in philosophy and film studies at U.C.L.A, to still photography under the instruction of Jerry McMillan. He instructed field workshops for the University of California, Santa Cruz Extension from 1977 through 2007. From 1984 to 1990, he was an assistant and one time director for The Ansel Adams Gallery Photography Workshop in Yosemite. In 2002, he served as a co-coordinator for the Ansel Adams Centennial Symposium in Yosemite, “Edges and Intersections: The Evolution of Change”. Devoted to facilitating art and education in Central California for the last thirty years, he has served as curator, juror, and consultant for many exhibitions, competitions, and media events, in addition to teaching photography full-time at Fresno City College. In 1979, he expanded the idea of a local gallery by instigating Spectrum Art Gallery, a non-profit, cooperative still providing valuable services to the community. He also was a founding member of Fresno’s “Corridor 2122”, an interdisciplinary art studio and gallery. In numerous one-person and group shows, Steve Dzerigian’s works have been exhibited throughout the United States:

Including the Chautauqua Art Association Gallery, N.Y.; Central Washington University; Fresno Metropolitan Museum; Spectrum Gallery, Fresno, Ca.; Corridor 2122, Fresno, Ca.; Light Impressions Gallery, Rochester, N.Y.; The Viewpoint Gallery, Sacramento, Ca.; David Ashcraft Gallery, Oakhurst, Ca.; Light Impressions Gallery, N.Y.; The University of Oregon Museum of Art, Eugene, Ore.; The Ansel Adams Gallery, Yosemite, Monterrey, & Mumm Napa Valley; the U.C., Center, and the Nikon House, New York City. The Ansel Adams Gallery at the Highlands Inn, Carmel; the de Saisset Gallery of Santa Clara University; and three Solo shows at the Fresno Art Museum. Published in LensWork Quarterly, Photography by London, Stone, & Upton, and Exploring Color Photography by Robert Hirsch. In many public and private collections, his work can always be viewed at Corridor 2122 and Spectrum Art Gallery.

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I use personally adapted meditation techniques in the process of observation and making images on film with the camera. After developing the film by hand, conventional and occasionally unconventional darkroom printing techniques are drawn upon to produce an image that does not break the felt connection with its content.

Once the initial artist proof is created, I hand craft in the same manner a small edition of archivally processed prints, which are then selenium toned for permanence, signed and numbered. With some pieces I apply color pencil to add color elements to the surface, or construct three dimensional collages.

 

 

 

Statement:

Relating the outside world to the internal, my approach is to make photographs during a process of confluence described by Richard D. Zakia in Perception and Imaging. "The photographer, for a fleeting moment or perhaps longer, actually feels a kinship with the object being photographed - object and photographer become one and the photograph mirrors that union."

Some, like myself, choose to create images by tapping a distilled, personally relevant series of actions, feelings, or thoughts. These relevant perceptions are in the reservoir of memory and the unconscious mind; and, may be drawn upon with reflex speed (faster than deliberate thought) or emerge gradually in meditative or dreamlike states. Authentic connection with subject matter tends to recede when we pursue it too actively. Paradoxically, subjects tend to present their truths to us if we are prepared, make ourselves available, and are receptive. We tend to absorb stimuli and experience more quickly and more completely than conscious thought can handle. I find that when my mind is emptied of deliberateness, the intuitive tends to flow forth.

At this time, my creative process could be described in terms of meditative, intuitive explorations. My way of working is grounded in the discovery that intuitive feelings and hunches can be invaluable guides throughout the process of making images. Especially of interest to me are those subjects and perceptions that acknowledge yet seem to transcend the surface of things.

Ongoing Series:

"Encounters in Elemental Directions" are images made in the simplest directions of common eyesight while observing the world. Each image concentrates on detail elements and in some way represents facing a truth, whether personal or more general. “Encounters” is an outgrowth from three series of on-going work - “The Human Landscape” “Dialogues With Nature”, and “Visual Autobiography”.

“The Human Landscape” addresses aspects of our influence in the world, including evidence that seems to reveal human nature. Human impact on the natural environment or the environments created by people involves a variety of interactions between nature, time, and humanity. This body of work calls to attention some of these interactions: the process of making marks, constructions, destructions, attempting control of nature, nature's reclamations, and the search for possible meaning in it all.

Responding to events in the natural world through personal perception and interpretation is the concentration in the series called “Dialogues With Nature”. As with most of my past and current work, these are created during a process of confluence. Frequently, I work with subjects that invite visual interpretation similar to that of a Rorschach test - seeing in non-human things, qualities the human psyche suggests.

The “Visual Autobiography” series consists of a chronological presentation of images symbolizing significant psychological states or events. While working on other projects, I often feel compelled to somehow, physically or emotionally participate in the making of an image beyond an impartial, documentary approach that is common in much of my work. Without conscious evaluation during the making of the exposure, this intuitive compulsion is satisfied. The autobiographical significance of the images produced in this way is later recognized and organized consciously. The results of this process tend to form chronologically and emotionally accurate excerpts from a visual diary.