MyWestTexas.com, TX
May 27 2007

Photographer recommends going into the field ‘only if you have to’

Georgia Temple<br>Arts & Entertainment Editor
Midland Reporter-Telegram
05/27/2007

New Mexico photographer Craig Varjabedian traces his passion for what
has become his home to a chance meeting when he was a teenager.

"My love for this landscape began through a chance meeting with the
photographer Ansel Adams," Varjabedian says in his book, "Four and
Twenty Photographs: Stories from Behind the Lens," published by the
University of New Mexico Press. "We met when I was a teenager, and
later I attended one of his workshops in California.

"Adams urged me to travel through New Mexico, which I did while in my
20s. Like most 20-year-olds, I was having an adventure, meeting new
people, exploring and often sleeping in my car to save money.

"I remember that I parked my car one night on the Santa Fe plaza.
Waking early, I watched the light from the sun rise behind the Sangre
de Cristo Mountains, illuminating the pre-dawn sky. Transfixed by the
richness and clarity of the light, I fell in love with New Mexico."

An exhibition of the "Four and Twenty Photographs" as well as copies
of his book will be at the Museum of the Southwest, 1705 W. Missouri
Ave., June 1 to July 31. The book includes text by writer Robin Jones
of Santa Fe and an afterword by Jay Packer, M.D. Varjabedian will be
at the Museum of the Southwest for the opening reception and book
signing at 6 p.m. Friday.

Several of the images are in color. Most are in black and white.

"The majority of work that I do is in black and white — 22 of the
images at the museum will be in black and white," Varjabedian said in
a telephone interview with the Reporter-Telegram. "The thing that
fascinates me about black and white is it’s different from what we
see. And in a lot of ways it abstracts what we see. The artist sort
of forces us to take a look at something in a way that we are not
used to seeing it."

The 24 images in the exhibition and book were selected by
Varjabedian, who earned a bachelor’s degree in photography from the
University of Michigan and a master’s degree in photography from
Rochester Institute of Technology. His teachers include, among
others, Phil Davis at the University of Michigan and photographer
Paul Caponigro.

"I feel that land and people form relationships, and when I take a
photograph, I’m forming a relationship, both with the subject of my
picture — be it tree, cloud, building or person — and the
environment around the subject," said Varjabedian, who is the
director of the New Mexico Photography Field School, Santa Fe.
"Nowadays when I photograph, I feel I’m creating a homage to the
West, its land and its people. The light and sky are spectacular, but
the people who live here also affirm the strength, endurance and
magic of this place."

Varjabedian was born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada in 1957. His family
moved to the United states in 1970. His first serious camera was a
TLR Yashica MAT 124G, that he purchased at K-Mart.

"My family heritage is Armenian," he said. "(His wife) Kathy can
trace her family back to the early Pilgrims. We live in New Mexico,
surrounded by a diverse community, learning much from the past about
how to live in the present and plan for the future."

He once considered entering the medical field.

"At one point in my life I had considered becoming a physician and
found the need to photograph became so much greater," Varjabedian
said. "One of my answers to people who come to me and ask, ‘Do you
think I ought to be a photographer?’ is ‘Only if you have to. If
you’re going at it for fame and money, it’s a fickle field to go
into.’

"I compare it to becoming a rock star. The way it all seems to work
is outside of any control we could have on it. There are people out
there who are really incredible shooters, and nobody ever hears of
them. Somebody else receives a huge amount of press and fame whose
work I simply don’t get. I think the whole thing is fickle."

Money wasn’t what drew Varjabedian into the field.

"I was just sort of seriously called to it, I think," he said. "When
I tried to take detours along the way, life sort of said, ‘No. You’re
not supposed to do that.’"

So he didn’t.

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