I am not very worried about the overabundance of images in today’s society. What does photography mean to you? And what do you want to transmit with your pictures? And in other words: What is it at all that a photograph can say? Especially keeping in mind the over abundance of photographic imagery in today’s society. And sometimes that is revealed while taking photos and sometimes afterwards. Not sure if I have one – each project has its own special moment. What was your most memorable moment shooting pictures? I have 2-3 novels bouncing around in my head which will one day find themselves on paper. Once I realized that, photography became my primary medium. What you have to say, what ideas and concepts are you constructing – this is the critical thing. So, I started doing photography more and more but it still took me a long time to convince myself that the medium is not the critical thing – that is, whether you write or draw or build or take photos is not the important thing.
The eyes of ara photographs pro#
I was even close to playing pro soccer right after high school. This seemed to be much better fit for my character-I had always been in motion as a kid, very active. It was kind of revelation – as much as writing requires hours of sitting and isolation, photography requires the exact opposite – constant movement and interaction (at least my brand of documentary photography does). So, I borrowed my friend’s camera and started taking pictures myself. I asked some friends to take photos but I did not like the photos they took – in terms of connecting to my fiction. Not sure why but I think because these pieces were so short, they resembled in a way photographs – moments captured in the imagination, moments from real life. “As much as writing requires hours of sitting and isolation, photography requires the exact opposite.”
So, I was writing these very short pieces of fiction – on the edge of fiction and non-fiction and I wanted to have photographs associated with them. Since I came of age in the US and English had become my primary language of writing I wanted to write in English – to continue in the family tradition, but also to differentiate myself.
It is not a state that can be ever fully explored because it is in constant flux. This dichotomy is what drove my artistic interest, my explorations. In short, to live and breathe in a diaspora – to come from a three-thousand year history but physically move in a space that has no connection to that history. What does it mean to be a person with all these diverse and often competing cultures within you?Ĭultures, languages, ways of life, perceptions of the world that each culture affords. I have deep Armenian roots but was born in an Arab country, had a French-Armenian education and then came of age in the US. I had a lot of interest in that and my overarching topic was my life and identity – who am I, why am I here and that took me back to my being Armenian and also being American – my hybrid, diaporic identity. One of my majors in college was English literature (the other was physics!). My grandfather is a celebrated novelist, my father a celebrated poet.
The eyes of ara photographs series#
Peter, 20 years old, Ironwood State Prison, from “A Poor Imitation of Death” series Interview with Ara OshaganĪra, why did you become a photographer? And why photojournalism? “My work is about identity, memory and community and a certain obsession with the margins of society.”Īra Oshagan (born 1964) is a photojournalist currently based in Los Angeles, USA.
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