Said photographer German Avagyan
Most recently, photographer German Avagyan displayed his photo exhibition entitled a “Visual Poetry”. The photos are a unique combination of poetry and photography. To our question about how the idea of such photographing was born, Mr. Avagyan replied, “As they say, photo is already a poetry, I was thinking over it since 1989 about how to combine photography with poetry. Millions of people write poems, but only a few dozen of them become a poet, the same goes for photography. It seems that they are different things: the poetry is perceived by the ear, while the visual image – by the eyes, still, there is the third point.”
German Avagyan said that he was thinking for a long time about how to equally present photography and poetry, but he could not find the way out, in his wore, the photo was always pushed to the second plan. “I have taken Tigran Paskevichyan’s photo in 1989 when we used to work together for “Garun” magazine. Some six months ago, I called him and told to write something down. I was reading it and liked it very much. This went for some time, and then I said that this is it, I need to present the visual poetry in this way.” Mr. Avagyan’s series of photographs are 15 of them. The heroes, his friends. “As long as these people exist, I must photograph them. I have a wonderful portrait of the writer Hovhannes Melkonyan, now, the photo exists but not he, at that time I was not thinking of doing such a thing.” Mr. Avagyan noted that he has not met any of such a display of art anywhere, and this is only the first stage. He’s going to take new photos and create a photo-album.
To our question about what inspired him to start this work, he answered in humor, “Since there are three poems in which my name is mentioned, I’ve already entered the literature: two of them are written by Paskevichyan and one by Shekoyan, I feel obligated to the poets.”
Suzy MURADYAN, “Aravot” daily
