Armenian photographer Vaghinak Ghazaryan won the World Press Photo’s leading international photojournalism contest. His Resting Soldier photo was one of the three winners in the Modern Problems in One Photo category out of 5,000 photos. Vaghinak is the first Armenian photographer representing Armenia to receive such an award.
Aravot Daily spoke to Vaghinak Ghazaryan. We asked him about what he thought the characteristics of documenting the war were, and what details in particular could make a photo impressive.
“The most important thing is to present reality as accurately as possible; in other words, you should present things as they are. Everything else, as they say, is technical… If the details determine reality, then every detail can be in the photograph. For example, I went to a home in Martuni that had been shelled and I took photos of that person’s house. I took the portrait in this person’s destroyed house, and when I wanted to leave, I saw that there were only black military boots on the shoe rack, but there was only one man living there. I asked him what the boots were for and where he got all the boots from. He said, “My sons are in the military.” See where everything comes from? I took photos of those boots,” the photographer said.
Speaking about his unique Resting Soldier piece, Ghazaryan mentioned how he wished to capture that moment. “There was a commander with me who said that we should go look at the positions. Then, I noticed a resting soldier, and I asked those coming up behind me to stop so that the soldier wouldn’t wake up. I was barely able to take that picture because he woke up even from that slight movement. He was a sleeping soldier, but in terms of symbolism, he became a resting-awake soldier for me.”
In response to Aravot Daily’s question of how he decides to take some pictures in black-and-white and others in color, Vaghinak Ghazaryan said, “That depends on the intention and concept, but I took Resting Soldier in color. Now, I think that it could have been possible to take it in black-and-white as well, although it is possible to turn a color photo into black-and-white. In general, black-and-white photos take you deep inside, towards the essence, because everything that would disturb the photo comes out. But, on the other hand, we are able to see the whole reality in color photos… there are contradicting elements.”
Read also
Regarding the fact that he is the first photographer representing Armenia who won such a leading award, Vaghinak modestly responded, “I guess that’s how it turns out… On one hand, I feel very emotional that they appreciated me, and I am happy for Armenia that we were noticed after all of that… By the way, there were other photos about Artsakh- Russian photographer Valery Melnikov’s Paradise Lost series- but there was nothing from Azerbaijan. After suffering so many losses, it seems that morality is on our side.”
We asked him if he is preparing to present his documentary series on the Artsakh war in an individual exhibition. Vaghinak Ghazaryan responded that he never thought about that, but it may be worth making that idea into reality either in an individual or group exhibition. “Other photographers also captured the war. Perhaps we can start thinking about holding an exhibition.”
Gohar Hakobyan
