Photographic Spaces

a photo project by Zaven Khachikyan

Humans change, rebuild their environment for the benefit of their existence, resettle and fill it with transient items… Later on they try to rediscover their peace, the eternal. They search for meanings and solutions through various activities, present explanations in the form of sound, text or images. Spaces that came before, that we’ve heard stories about, that we examine on website of travel or real estate agencies, magazines relating to architectural problems.

The project “Photographic Spaces” is that very space freed of pragmatism for admirers or professionals. Are we truly the ones who create those spaces? Rather we discover them and transform into photographs seeking out the aesthetic, the beauty, the ritualistic… The silence.

When visiting nature, city landscapes we experience awe, regret, sadness or pain, whereas “Photographic Spaces” is something beyond that – caverns covered with the mystery of silence, images created in quietude. My words do not imply that I myself came up with a manual for photographic textbooks. Rather this is simply a convition that often guides me when I am taking photographs. In order to clarify my problem I intend to visit nature spaces, architectural structures, theater stages, museums, stations… Where man’s experience of being one with or opposing nature is present.

Last year in frames of the “Photographic Spaces” project I have photographed in Armenia,and also in Georgia, Canada and the US during short trips. I hope that the The PHmuseum Photography Grant will give an opportunity to deelop and complete the project with the aid of experiences accumulated from various spaces by summing up all the materials and releasing an album parallel to the exhibition.

Zaven Khachikyan,

Photographer