Out of Stone: Armenia and Arstakh Book Stirs Emotions, Renews Hope

California Courier, 1999

It is not easy to review a book of photographs about Armenia and Artsakh.  First and foremost, emotions overflow as one looks at bits of life  encapsulated in photos that dramatize the human condition,  especially if that human condition is Armenian.

The quality of the book is what first attacks the senses. The powerful cover depicting a peasant woman already symbolizes the tortuous story of Mother Armenia. Living next to harsh rocky terrain, dressed in traditional-patterned working clothes, this peasant woman, a worker of the soil, she stands confidently and grins at life with her worn hands resting on a staff. Next to her, on the ground, a bag awaits to be picked up and taken to a faraway place.

The cover is merely the portal to another journey to a place of wonder, marvels, sadness and joy, but never of indifference.  The book eliciting these powerful emotions is "Out of Stone; Armenia, Artsakh," a collaborative work of two young Armenian-American photographers who focused their probing cameras into Armenia from 1995 through 1999.

Robert Kurkjian and Matthew Karanian ( K2) have put together an immensely pleasing pictorial in an hardcover, 184-pages, large 9" x 12" format. The premium archival quality paper is acid-free and will remain intact for much of the next millennium.

The images they preserved are nothing short of amazing.  Written words are insufficient to relate the majesty of these images.  The book opens with a dramatic silhouette of the Khor Virap monastery, blanketed by a brilliant orange sunset, and goes on to feature Armenia's colorful landscapes, complete with exploding lights, and exquisite camera work to catch the fading, shimmering lights off Mt. Ararat, as darkness approaches.

The rest of the book features individuals, from the very young to the very old, each a wealth in its own merit.

Pictures of Artsakh and Armenia are clearly interwoven as is the history of the land. They are indistinguishable. The crisp and evocative photographs, and - in the pastoral scenes - underline again and again -- the inseparable mix of man/woman and nature, a rich history hewn in expressive faces, Unlike other photography books of this kind, the images are not marred by pagination, or written explanations. These are kept quietly out of the way, in the back pages, which give out the location and the subject along with the author. The photographs are, in fact, open to interpretation by each reader, which are undistracted by captions. Each reader is free to extract whatever he/she wants from that page.

This is not to say that there are no notes along the way. Quotations from some of Armenia's most eminent poets, Vahan Tekeyan, Yeghishe Charents, Bedros Tourian, Vahan Derian, Gevorg Emin, and Henrik Toumanian, embellish the book. Quotes are also taken from author Peter Balakian, from the United States, and a promising young poet Areen Armenian.

It is clear even to the uninitiated that this book is a labor of love, as well as a professional presentation of images that touch and invigorate the soul. It is not impossible to forecast that emotions awakened by these photographs will bring tears to many readers' eyes.

Permeating the book is perhaps one of the strongest emotion mankind has been able to devise to promote survival: Hope.

Hope that someday the present difficulties in Armenia and Artsakh will remain only a footnote in history. Hope that the people will at last enjoy a standard of life that reflects the dignity of Armenia's workingman and peasant, as well as the intellectual. Hope that the potential of every child will be given flight to rise as high as Mt. Ararat, and beyond.  "Out of Stone" is not a definitive text on Armenia, the authors observe, "and it does not attempt to catalog every church, every church monument, every profession, or every variant of city and village life."  "This is my Armenia," Kurkjian said. Karanian agrees, "Look at this book, and come back and visit these images over and over, and you'll see why Armenians love their country."

California Courier, Nov. 4, 1999