dzerigian

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.

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.

Steve Dzerigian