Author(s): Antoine Agoudjian

Photography

1915. Against the background of World War I, the Ottoman Empire began a program of systematic extermination of their minority Armenian population. Towns and villages were razed and minority settlements uprooted. Thousands were deported, compelled to undertake death marches, or forced into labor. In a feat of unspeakable cruelty, over a million Armenians were massacred. Those who survived fled their Turkish homeland to form diaspora communities throughout the world. Antoine Agoudjian has dedicated his lifes work to the photographic documentation of Armenian peoples, exiled from a nation decimated by genocide and war. Agoudjians evocative images explore cultural memory and identity in the face of wholesale extermination and consequent exile. With his exhibition on the Armenian memory in 2011, he became the first photographer to hold such an exhibit in Turkey since the 1915 genocide. His work evolved that same year from black-and white to color photography, and his message of tolerance transcends beyond the Armenian community, offering hope in the irrepressible strength of the human spirit.
With photographs taken around the world over the course of nearly thirty years, Agoudjian documents what must not be forgotten in powerfully moving and intimate images.