Photolure photographers Hayk and Vahram Baghdasaryans and Lusine Sargsyan received President Prize in 2017 for the series of photos “A Moment”. The series presented the 15-year work of Photolure news agency. The reason for participating in the award was the popular photo of “Electric Yerevan” demonstrator. They recall that after the award ceremony they made up their minds to put an end to this stage and turn over a new leaf in their lives.
It has been three years since presenting the series of “A Moment”, and there have been so many moments so far, which means it’s high time for another exhibition. The awardees spent the monetary prize on purchasing new photo camera; “The prize does not open doors, but it is a good recollection and great honor, also you get to mention in your CV about being a President Prize Awardee” – Lusine Sargsyan said.
We enjoy those “moments” of important events and do not even imagine how one puts their lives at risk to take those photos. During the April war in 2016, while Vahram Baghdasaryan was taking one of his popular photos, a UAV had hit the ground 100 meters away from him and blew up a car. In the meanwhile, Lusine mentioned that every successful photoshoot during demonstrations is full of risks: damage of equipment, or injuries. During the interview Vahram Baghdasaryan showed the scars of his injuries during one of the political incidents. “While working during demonstrations, danger can come from everyone, even from the demonstrators. Many of them might ask why I am taking their photos, and it is hard to explain that is simply a good shot”.
Although given advanced technology age almost everyone can take photos, however genuine photography maintains commonly accepted norms. “For instance, we deny photoshop in our photos, this is a banned topic, however there are some funny cases when people doubt that we do not apply photoshop. Our photo of a famous politician appeared on a newspaper cover. The next day I received a call from that person who inquired why I had photoshopped his photo and his mouth appeared crooked. Well, sir, I went on explaining him that we have not modified his photo. He says “I stand in front of the mirror and try positioning my mouth for hours, but I do not end up having a crooked mouth, this means the photo has been photoshopped”. And we are forced to explain to him that this is how his mouth looks like in reality”.
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We have had such an experience with another, a female politician. During circulation of an anti-smoking bill one of the newspapers had published her photo with a cigarette in her mouth. The photo belonged to the agency and the given mass media had added the cigarette on its behalf. “She called me asking what am I doing, shame on me”.
Another popular photo that went viral and became a heated topic of discussion was the photo of businessman Samvel Aleksanyan standing with his head down next to the Prime Minister. This photo also became a humorous one, with a series of comments like this : “Would you like me to fetch apples for you?”. The photo was taken by Lusine. The we received calls from “authorities”, we thought they were about to complain, yet instead, they requested the photo for themselves as it had become quite popular. Another popular photo is Russia’s President Vladimir Putin touring in a boat in Sevan. According to the photographers, the Russians had requested 40 extra large copies of the photo.
In response to the question why they do not spend day and night near houses of famous people, staking them for the purpose to at least take one shot, like the many paparazzi living abroad do, Hayk Baghdasaryan replied “What is the use to stalk the celebrities, when in Armenia they are all available”. Who do we need to stealthily approach them? If you meant Kim Kardashian, then we did paparazzi her. When she came to Armenia, we took photos of her, by the way many require those photos from abroad, while here in Armenia, others simply steal them.
Plagiarism, copyright infringement are one of the saddest issues. They say that many mass media do not have a photographer of their own and they publish new photos daily. And It is obvious where they take them from. As Hayk Baghdasaryan mentions, “They plagiarize with the text; there is a law for texts, to some extent, they have to change the wording, and publish the rest, while in case of the photos, they crop from top, the bottom, from right to left, in a word they spoil it entirely”.
Photographers are forced to use their methods and means to fight plagiarism. They use Facebook as a platform to post the names of illegal pseudo-photographers by revealing them. They are irritated, yet similar to stealing a painter’s canvas, this is also a crime and they should be condemned. Photography is an art, and a vivid example of it is that photography is in the same category as fine arts, cinematography, theatre and architecture in President Prize. Nonetheless there is an issue here; “It is less likely that photography shall get the prize in this category, as how can one compare theatre with photography and make a decision between them, deciding which one is more worthy”.
Hripsime Jebejyan
The President Prize to the Republic of Armenia is initiated and funded by the Boghossian Foundation (Belgium-Switzerland). The Award Ceremony is organized by “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund. The prizes are conferred by the RA President and the representatives of the Boghossian Foundation annually in May.
“Aravot” daily
12.03.2020
