Sigman finely frames his Las Vegas heritage

Friday, March 22, 2002 | 9:31 a.m.

When: 1-9 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Fridays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays, through May 7.

Where: Charleston Heights Art Center, 800 S. Brush St.

Admission: Free.

Information: 229-6074.

You truly can't go home again.

Las Vegas photographer Fred Sigman firmly believes the premise of the book, "You Can't Go Home Again," written by his cousin Thomas Wolfe.

Wolfe was born in Asheville, N.C., in 1900 and died in Baltimore in 1938 of tuberculosis of the brain. The novel was published posthumously in 1940.

"I liked the book both for content and title," said the 48-year-old Sigman, an art history instructor at the Community College of Southern Nevada. "It is a summary of much of my life in photography."

A small fraction of his photographs are on display through May 7 at Charleston Heights Arts Center.

The exhibition, "Casinos and Desert Landscapes: Two Views," is being held in conjunction with the 39th annual conference of the Society of Photographic Education, which began Thursday at the Tropicana and continues through Sunday.

"Fred Sigman is an internationally recognized photographer who has a wealth of work on the changing scene of the Strip, the city and the landscape," said Nancy Sloan, spokesperson for the Cultural Affairs Division of the Las Vegas Department of Cultural Affairs, sponsor of the exhibit.

Four other photo exhibitions, all of them free and open to the public, will coincide with the conference:

"Intersection," at the Reed Whipple Cultural Center, will feature works by eight photographers through April 23.

"Ni9ne," at UNLV's Barrick Museum, will feature nine photographers. It will continue through May 24.

UNLV will host two other photo exhibits, including one by Pasha Rafat at the Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery (on display through Sunday), and one by Catherine Angel at the Grant Hall Gallery (through today).

Sigman's exhibit, which is being held in collaboration with Charles Morgan, focuses on the Strip and the Las Vegas Wash.

Many of the photographs were taken more than 25 years ago, when Sigman was a student at Bishop Gorman High School.

Sigman was born in Asheville, as was his famous cousin, but his parents divorced when he was young and his mother took him to Paris, where he grew up.

When he was a teenager he moved to Las Vegas to live with his attorney father, the late Fred Sigman Jr. After high school he moved to Florida and became a wildlife photographer.

"When you see the exhibition you will see primarily two bodies of work," Sigman said. "There will be casino landscapes and the Las Vegas Wash. When I was at Bishop Gorman High School I was always in the Wash."

A gifted photographer who first picked up a camera at age 8, and has rarely put it down since, Sigman said he took many pictures of the Wash and of the Strip.

"Today 99 percent of those places no longer exist," he said. "It is very poignant -- you can't go home again."