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Click for more details on the poster: These Eyes Have Seen the Genocide
Ninety survivors of the Armenian Genocide are the faces of their troubled generation, honored in a poster produced by Photolure, a Yerevan photo news agency.
“These Eyes Have Seen Genocide” bears the images of old men and women who were children in 1915 and are a diminishing link to Armenia’s darkest history.
The agency’s editor-in-chief Herbert Baghdasaryan says the number of people presented on the poster is symbolic in the year when the nation and Diaspora is commemorating the 90th anniversary of the Genocide.
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He says that they wanted to do something within their professional abilities on this occasion.
“Everyone does what he does best and we wanted to do something for this anniversary,” says Baghdasaryan. “A mason would make something out of a stone, but we are photo journalists and that’s how this idea emerged.”
The poster is printed in a limited edition. Its original size is 3.20m to 7.20m. The oldest man whose image is presented is now 108 years old (born in 1897). The images were taken in Yerevan, the Armavir, Aragatsotn and Ararat regions (marzes).
Baghdasaryan says that it took them more than a month to realize this project, although the main work was done within less than two weeks.
“When we had a clear idea of what we wanted to do we saw that the volume of work was huge and so we needed some sort of sponsorship,” says Baghdasaryan. “We found that assistance at the office of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyn) and all we needed to do was to complete the work as soon as possible.”
Baghdasaryan says that Genocide Museum Director Lavrenty Barseghyan was a great help to the project as he provided them with the list of Genocide survivors who were likely to have survived till today.
Photolure’s chief says their main goal was documental rather than artistic, but adds: “Portraits of children and elderly people are very immediate and require practically no extra effort.”
The main work was accomplished by Photolure’s photographers Melik Baghdasaryan and Mkhitar Khachatryan. Photographer Hayk Badalyan also contributed to the project.
The photographers say that the most difficult part of the project was finding the people, especially in the city.
“It was much easier to work in the provinces than in Yerevan,” says Melik Baghdasaryan. “It was more difficult to find people in a big city where people open their doors reluctantly, but in villages everyone would show you the way without address and would give you a very warm welcome.”
“We were very happy when we entered somebody’s home and found that he or she was alive,” adds Mkhitar Khachatryan. “Even after 90 years people were disturbed to relive their memories, and we tried not to stay at their homes too long not to cause them too much stress.”
The Photolure team, who are grandsons of Genocide survivors from Van and Mush, say that in some way this project had also personal importance for them.
“Unfortunately, many representatives of the younger generation know little about their forefathers, where they hailed from and what happened to them in the past,” says Melik Baghdasaryan. “And this work in some way is a reminder of the living memory of the Genocide next to us.”