The work of Stephen Zerne is an examination into our perception of nature: both taking nature into a context that it is not normally viewed, and realizing the progress inherent in nature without deliberate action.

Stephen's work is always derived from a question. There is no correct answer to what a work is or means, only that the viewer connects. What he looks for is the personal connection that the viewer creates. He wishes to explore aesthetics and its palpable relationship to the core human mental framework with emphasis on empathy and social context. To question what makes human constructs and natural frameworks separate in our minds. To explore, prod, and twist what is human empathy and how empathy plays into our sense of beauty. How forms (often human) and elements of nature create communicable imagery or even iconic forms that can spell out a very specific story, or leave its audience with an array of questions.

In producing anything he finds the intimate and often tactile process to be most gratifying, and this is part of what activates it as a valuable thing. Even in the finest of detail he is tangibly involved. In each he builds off of the last moment, driving the materials closer and closer to completion. The photography is unlike his normal process in that it is an immediate and unaltered reflection, rather than a carefully manipulated form. For him, the medium is secondary to the end goal. Regardless of medium or subject, each action is an effort of learning, experimenting, experiencing, and communicating.

Contact Stephen