Documentary Photography Workshop, Tumo, Summer/Autumn 2012

Ani Melkonyan – 18-years-old

Armenia State Uniersity of Economics

I have created two series of photos. The first shows family members, my sisters, and the other shows people unknown to me; i.e. strangers.  When photographing them, I wanted to feel the difference between them.

The first series is dedicated to my family, my sisters. I like to photograph my family and to convey the same emotions and intimacy that I feel towards the. In the second series I have photographed complete strangers. I spent a lot of time with them, listened to their stories and tried to grasp their essence. I have tried to make their stories accessible to others via my photos.

I can say that photographing my relatives proved to be more complicated since you are striving to correctly present a image that is very familiar to you. Photographing strangers is much easier since you are the one creating their image.