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ALEXANDRA AVAKIAN: "ARAFAT CALLED ME A TROUBLEMAKER BUT ALLOWED ME TO PHOTOGRAPH"
Anush Kocharyan
http://hetq.am/eng/news/20316/alexandra-avakian-arafat-called-me-a-troublemaker-but-allowed-me-to-photograph.html
21:57, November 7, 2012
Alexandra Avakian, a photojournalist who has worked with the National
Geographic Society since 1995, has come to Armenia.
Today she was on hand at the opening of her photographic and written
memoir, Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in the Muslim World,
exhibition at the Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art
(NPAK) in Yerevan.
Photojournalist Alexandra Avakian has covered many of the most
important issues of her time. Her photographs have been published
in National Geographic, Time, LIFE, the New York Times Magazine,
and many others in the U.S. and throughout Europe.
Born in New York, Avakian has covered the Soviet Union, its fall,
and the aftermath, including several civil wars, uprisings, and the
1991 coup for Time magazine and others. Avakian also covered the
first Palestinian Intifada for seven years and many other stories in
the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Caribbean for the
major magazines of her time. She spent seven months covering Haiti
in 1986-87. She documented the civil war and famine in Somalia and
Sudan for Time. Her subjects have also included the 1988 earthquake
in Armenia, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Czechoslovakia's Velvet
Revolution for LIFE magazine, the funeral of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini
in 1989 for Time, homelessness and drug addiction in New York, and the
migration of raptors through Mexico for Audubon, etc. Avakian lived
in Moscow for two years (1990-92), Somalia for six months (1992-93),
and Gaza for two years (1993-95).
The Yerevan exhibition of photos of the Muslim world also includes
two from Artsakh. One shows a mother and father burying their son
who has dies on the battlefield.
"I was born and raised with surprises, in a creative family interested
in the cinema. When I turned nineteen and my grandparents were no
longer alive I tried to personally understand what was meant by the
terms refugee and escape. I threw myself into that area because it
was the imperative, my mission," Avakian says.
Alexandra Avakian was born in New York to writer and poet Dorothy
Tristan and film editor and director Aram Avakian.
Meeting with reporters today at the opening of the exhibition, Avakian
recounted the many and varied problems she's encountered during her
worldwide photo assignments.
In particular, she spoke about her meeting with PLO head Yasser Arafat.
"I was received quite warmly by Arafat. He gave me permission to
take photos even though he called me a dictator and troublemaker,"
Avakian recounted.
She spoke of her time spent in Artsakh in 1988, living in the
underground bunker of the prime minister's family or a hotel full
of refugees.
"I was with the Askeran unit in the trenches. Opposite us were the
Azerbaijanis. All the time, the farmers continued to work in the
fields. It was a crazy situation. I was in the commander's car and
it suddenly stopped in the middle of the field. I could feel the
bullets whizzing by. I just wanted to get out of that insanity. And
the farmers kept working."
The exhibition will run until December 15.
The exhibition has been organized with the financial assistance of
the Civilitas Foundation and the U.S. State Department's Bureau of
Public Affairs.
From: Baghdasarian
Anush Kocharyan
http://hetq.am/eng/news/20316/alexandra-avakian-arafat-called-me-a-troublemaker-but-allowed-me-to-photograph.html
21:57, November 7, 2012
Alexandra Avakian, a photojournalist who has worked with the National
Geographic Society since 1995, has come to Armenia.
Today she was on hand at the opening of her photographic and written
memoir, Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in the Muslim World,
exhibition at the Armenian Center for Contemporary Experimental Art
(NPAK) in Yerevan.
Photojournalist Alexandra Avakian has covered many of the most
important issues of her time. Her photographs have been published
in National Geographic, Time, LIFE, the New York Times Magazine,
and many others in the U.S. and throughout Europe.
Born in New York, Avakian has covered the Soviet Union, its fall,
and the aftermath, including several civil wars, uprisings, and the
1991 coup for Time magazine and others. Avakian also covered the
first Palestinian Intifada for seven years and many other stories in
the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Caribbean for the
major magazines of her time. She spent seven months covering Haiti
in 1986-87. She documented the civil war and famine in Somalia and
Sudan for Time. Her subjects have also included the 1988 earthquake
in Armenia, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Czechoslovakia's Velvet
Revolution for LIFE magazine, the funeral of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini
in 1989 for Time, homelessness and drug addiction in New York, and the
migration of raptors through Mexico for Audubon, etc. Avakian lived
in Moscow for two years (1990-92), Somalia for six months (1992-93),
and Gaza for two years (1993-95).
The Yerevan exhibition of photos of the Muslim world also includes
two from Artsakh. One shows a mother and father burying their son
who has dies on the battlefield.
"I was born and raised with surprises, in a creative family interested
in the cinema. When I turned nineteen and my grandparents were no
longer alive I tried to personally understand what was meant by the
terms refugee and escape. I threw myself into that area because it
was the imperative, my mission," Avakian says.
Alexandra Avakian was born in New York to writer and poet Dorothy
Tristan and film editor and director Aram Avakian.
Meeting with reporters today at the opening of the exhibition, Avakian
recounted the many and varied problems she's encountered during her
worldwide photo assignments.
In particular, she spoke about her meeting with PLO head Yasser Arafat.
"I was received quite warmly by Arafat. He gave me permission to
take photos even though he called me a dictator and troublemaker,"
Avakian recounted.
She spoke of her time spent in Artsakh in 1988, living in the
underground bunker of the prime minister's family or a hotel full
of refugees.
"I was with the Askeran unit in the trenches. Opposite us were the
Azerbaijanis. All the time, the farmers continued to work in the
fields. It was a crazy situation. I was in the commander's car and
it suddenly stopped in the middle of the field. I could feel the
bullets whizzing by. I just wanted to get out of that insanity. And
the farmers kept working."
The exhibition will run until December 15.
The exhibition has been organized with the financial assistance of
the Civilitas Foundation and the U.S. State Department's Bureau of
Public Affairs.
From: Baghdasarian