Activism In Armenia

There is a famous Armenian saying: “A drop of water can pierce a rock.” That’s what we’re doing: piercing the stone. In 2012, we set out to profile the men and women fighting for a sustainable, just and progressive Armenia. Our focus was three-fold, with video, photo and prose coming together to paint a poetic–and real–picture of activists working tirelessly in this country, right now. Here are two of these stories. Scroll down to see photos and videos.

Hayk Bianjyan-historical preservation

Hayk Bianjyan is a photojournalist and preservationist who battles the steady destruction of architecturally and historically significant structures in Yerevan, Armenia’s 2,794-year-old capitol. His weapon is his camera, which he uses to document not just the final hours of an aging building, but also the process of its demise. His short documentary, “Disappearing Memories”, has been screened in Armenia and Canada; it chronicles the layering of what is now Northern Avenue over a historic neighborhood in the heart of Yerevan. He has a growing archive of photographs and other ephemera left behind by the inhabitants of these spaces, and dreams of some day displaying...