CRAIG VARJABEDIAN’S PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE AMERICAN WEST illuminate his profound connection with the region and its people. His finely detailed images shine with an authenticity that reveals the inseparable ties between identity, place, and the act of perceiving. For Varjabedian, the art of photography is a receptive process driven by openness to the revelation each subject offers, rather than the desire to manipulate form or catalog detail. He achieves this intensely personal vision by capturing and suspending on film those decisive moments in which the elements and the ineffable spirit of a moment come together in exceptional and often startling ways.

In 1991, Varjabedian received an Emmy award for the PBS film about his photographic work titled En Divina Luz: The Penitente Moradas of New Mexico. Several books of his photographs have been published by the University of New Mexico Press and include En Divina Luz: The Penitente Moradas of New Mexico (1994), Four & Twenty Photographs: Stories from Behind the Lens (2007), Ghost Ranch and the Faraway Nearby (2009) which received a prestigious Wrangler Award from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. His upcoming book Landscape Dreams, A New Mexico Portrait (2012) will present an elegant selection of Varjabedian’s work from New Mexico made over the last 25 years. This coffee-table book is being published by the University of New Mexico Press to coincide with New Mexico’s Centennial of Statehood celebrations in 2012.

PRAISE FOR CRAIG VARJABEDIAN’S PHOTOGRAPHS:

 The remarkable photographs by Craig Varjabedian are not only beautiful but also extremely valuable documents of architecture, culture, and lifestyle,
- Beaumont Newhall, Preeminent 20th-Century Photography Historian

Craig Varjabedian’s photography captures, with arresting clarity, the ineffable whispers of time and spirit layered deep in New Mexico’s cultural landscape. Through the artful combination of his compassionate eye and technical virtuosity, he evokes the past in the present and the holy in the everyday.
- Catherine Whitney, Chief Curator, Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Varjabedian’s finely tuned sensibilities and impeccable craftsmanship are everywhere in evidence in photographs that linger like haunting afterimages in the mind’s eye.
- Sarah L. Burt, Chief Curator, C.M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, Montana

Varjabedian invites the viewer to fall into the landscape as if in a vivid dream.
- Wesley Pulkka, The Albuquerque Journal

Craig’s original limited edition photographs are available for purchase from select galleries and directly from the photographer’s studio. Please inquire by telephone at 505 / 983.2934 or by e.mail.