Comments on: ara oshagan – father:land

By: pcpics

pcpics — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 11:30:19 +0000

What a great example of the power of the photographic image. I especially love the gritty feel of the images (reminiscent of HP5 pushed to 1600) and no attempt to technically enhance the pictures, leaving the viewer to experience what it must feel like to actually be there witnessing these peoples’s lives.

By: vida breve

vida breve — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:36:13 +0000

[...] Ara Oshagan. A coisa melhor que vi nos últimos meses. [...]

By: Ara Oshagan

Ara Oshagan — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 05:08:15 +0000

Simon,

Thanks for your kind words. I am Armenian yes but I am also American, having lived in the states since I was 11… I was not even born in Armenia–I was born in Beirut and had a French education…. So what am I? God only knows… And perhaps that search for identity is a bit more urgent for people like me, displaced and living between cultures. It is also perhaps a certain nostalgia for that lost purity that also drove me to such a remote region as Karabagh. Trying to connect to a people so close to the land and so perhaps by extension so close to a shared history. I am not sure what I found there but I do feel I connected.

By: Simon Griffee

Simon Griffee — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 23:33:15 +0000

Ara,

I think many of your photos *are* beyond time, they are beautiful…and I agree with your last point, though I think it is very important to search within yourself, which I personally find photography so good for…I struggle with all this too…my mom gets mad at me when I tell her I am not Brazilian!

By: Ara Oshagan

Ara Oshagan — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:49:33 +0000

Simon,

Asking for a photo that is “beyond time” from an already fallen world, already fallen photographers, is a tall order.Our biases, perceptions, our history, our failings, we carry with us all the time. The past is not over, it is not even past. We are all gropping for a sense of place and time, to make sense of our world. So I am not sure that this search for identity can be the root cause of genocides… Perhaps a solidified identity which rejects the other can be…

By: Antonio Carrus

Antonio Carrus — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:56:32 +0000

I admire the powerful vision you shared here. Really touching.
Such a dense B&W is a faithful companion for conveying feelings of “amarcord”, even for people who’ve never experienced these places and their history.
Congrats!

By: Ara Oshagan

Ara Oshagan — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 18:37:30 +0000

Jason,

I tried to structure my essay with the same structure of the book I am working on. I would agree that some images when showing 28 don’t work that well, but work better when you are showing 50 or 60. It seems that a better edit is always just around the corner…

I will defintely take ALL my kids there one day. It is a significant place from an Armenian perspective as well for us from a familial one, obviously. I have my father’s essay about the place that will be part of the book–this they will see.

Thanks for the post.

By: Jason_Houge

Jason_Houge — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:22:45 +0000

Impressive story :)
The sprinkling of western products helps illustrate the transition these people are experience.
The trench in 15 – reminds me of stories of trench warfare in WWI and how bloody that was. It helps the audience understand the depth of their struggles.

I was confused a bit by 19. too dark/noisy… what is it’s significance? is it a religious incense burner? how does it tie in with the rest of the story?
And 21 feels like a filler shot. again dark and noisy, I can’t really tell what I’m seeing.

But great story! Are you going to take your children there someday? Maybe give them each their own copy of this story bound in a book maybe with some notes from your father and his family, if you have any?

By: yutopia

yutopia — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:07:17 +0000

Beautiful photographs, deep touching story, and really fantastic and sad at once place… Thank you!

By: marco

marco — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:25:57 +0000

very good essay, powerful, sentimental and iconographically varied. The style is classic, the pictures carefully composed. A pleasure to the eye.

By: neven grujic

neven grujic — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 12:39:20 +0000

great , great work

By: John Pitsakis

John Pitsakis — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 11:52:10 +0000

I loved it.
Excellent work, approached with sensitivity and honesty.

Congratulations and good luck for the future..

By: Liam

Liam — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 06:09:52 +0000

Exquisite work that has me coming back again and again; beautifully layered… the whole essay feels like an epic tapestry of memory and experience, both real and imagined.

By: humbled

humbled — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 03:36:20 +0000

I am 100% humbled… Beautiful…

By: dq

dq — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:33:41 +0000

exceptional work. layered, nuanced images, each photo a deft visual narrative. ara: you’re good.

By: louee

louee — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:03:37 +0000

Truly magnificent, especially liked images-13,15,19,22,25 and 27……..

By: Ramon Mas

Ramon Mas — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:38:46 +0000

Not that I value his opinion any more than any other, but I can’t wait to read his opinion…..Jim??

By: Imants

Imants — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:30:14 +0000

Returning visitors rarely cast a positive eye ……….. this essay continues the trend.

By: Simon Griffee

Simon Griffee — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:20:43 +0000

Thoughts in my mind after looking at “Ara’s”:http://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/ara-oshagan-fatherland/ photographs:

Identity, whether it is associated with a father- or homeland, political movement or organized religion is the cause of the genocides that continue on.

Ideas themselves, the mind, thought, are generators of identity.

Identifying with something often means you are not observing anymore. It is the beginning of the fall.

If we can only observe, without judgment, if we can be aware without choosing, maybe something beyond time can be found…Time, the division of the past and the future from the present is another cause of genocides…Looking, observing, from moment to moment, instantly, without time…if we could do this, would genocides still happen?

I like photographs because when I look at the shapes and values I am aware of the thoughts forming in my brain more easily than when reading.

“The observer is the observed”:http://www.freeweb.hu/tchl/freedom_from_the_known/1968-00-00_freedom_from_the_known_chapter_13.html.

By: Sidney Atkins

Sidney Atkins — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:42:59 +0000

While I think this is a good essay and some of the individual photos are truly great, I am apparently less overwhelmed than many other commentators. I’m asking myself why… is it because I see a lack of consistency in style, with the very noisy pictures taken in low light mixed in with the exterior shots? Is it because the stunning quality of a few photos (especially #2,3,14, and 17) is so high that they create a level of photographic expectation that the other photos don’t quite live up to? Other photos that I liked were 6,8,10,18, and 22…not quite as stunning as the top 4, but still maintaining a high level and contributing to the essay’s “momentum of excellence.” But some others felt like ‘filler’ to me. And although some of the other photos may be OK, even good, photojournalism, I had the feeling I’d seen the compositions and subject treatment before in many other places. I didn’t read the artist’s statement ahead of time, but just reacted to the photos I was seeing as photographs… after seeing nos. 2 and 3, I kept looking for more that were up to that level… and when that expectation was only partially met, I guess I felt disappointed. But obviously this is a photographer with great talent.