Mountain Lives

A portrait of rural Armenia, 2025

The photographs move between the pastoral and the abandoned, the sacred and the everyday. The series documents the physical difficulty of mountain farming and herding, yet the unmatched hospitality of Armenian people. Abandoned structures recur as never-ending motif here.

A person leading a flock of sheep through a rocky, hilly landscape under a tree with green and yellow leaves.
A winding mountain road with cars on the left side and cyclists with dogs on the right side, surrounded by trees and fog in the background.
A small town at the foot of a mountain range with a tall industrial chimney, old stone buildings, trees, and overcast sky.
An old blue truck driving on a road with a rocky hillside in the background, loaded with furniture and chairs.
An old, abandoned brick building with large rectangular openings and a smaller window, surrounded by overgrown vegetation and a rural landscape in the distance.
Three children playing soccer on an outdoor field with mountains in the background. One child is heading the ball, while the other two stand nearby.
Four children sitting outdoors next to a rusty pipe, surrounded by dry grass and shrubs, with a hillside and trees in the background.
Mural of multiple illustrated faces of men with writing in Armenian script on a white wall. People walking past in front of the mural.

In a dark village barn, a polished Soviet samovar stands beside an ATV quad bike while a chicken steps between them - a single frame that compresses a century of Armenian rural history.

Person pouring coffee into a cup on a table with three cups of coffee, a plate with slices of cake, and a lace tablecloth.
A chicken standing on the ground near a metal samovar, with a yellow quad bike behind it in a rustic shed or garage setting.
Person pouring a hot beverage from a colorful teapot into a paper cup at an outdoor market.
A woman with dark hair stands at the entrance of a house holding a kettle and a small container. She wears a black graphic T-shirt, gray pants, and white Crocs. Outside, there is a potted plant and a pair of black shoes on the ground near a staircase

A woman carries a bag of fruit through the medieval khachkar cemetery at Noratus, the largest field of Armenian cross-stones in the world. She sells them to tourists as a living.

A woman walking on grass with a plastic bag full of apples, in an open field with ancient stone ruins under a blue sky.
A stone church with a cross on top, with sunlight shining through an arched doorway, set against a mountainous landscape at dusk or dawn.
A cemetery with headstones and a small church, set against a mountain landscape at sunset, with a bird flying in the sky, and a leafless tree in the foreground.

A herder armed with a rifle leads a flock of several hundred sheep and goats down a rocky mountain track as his son walks alongside him. He is a village policeman, but today is his turn to herd.

Two cows standing on a grassy farm field with a house, trees, and mountains in the background.
Farmer working in a grassy field with a pickaxe, a brown horse grazing nearby, stone walls, rolling hills in the background, overcast sky.
A blue truck loaded with large hay bales, with a group of black and white and brown and white cows grazing nearby in a grassy field.
Three hikers, one carrying a sleeping bag, standing on rocky hillside with goats grazing and resting among rocks, under a clear blue sky.
A man in rubber boots is filling a shallow basin with water from a faucet behind a chain-link fence on a farm, where a goat is drinking water from a white, old bathtub.
A sheep with a rope around its neck standing in a grassy field with trees and mountains in the background.
An adult man and a boy outdoors in a mountainous area, with a dog, in daytime. The man is holding a rifle and is wearing a cap and backpack, while the boy is dressed in dark clothing and a camouflage cap, standing with hands in pockets, listening.
A row of brown and white cows standing in a dark barn, with their hindquarters visible, feeding from a trough filled with water or feed.
A chicken pecking at the ground next to a pile of pumpkins near a large hay bale in an outdoor setting.
A pile of watermelons on dry ground next to a leafy tree, with rocky hills in the background.
Multiple colorful beekeeper hives on a grassy hillside with trees and bushes in the background.
A man walking with a walking stick in a grassy area with a cow nearby on a hillside, overlooking a valley with winding roads and a river, surrounded by green hills.
A rural mountain road blocked by rocks and red and white tape, with a stop sign and a no entry sign. There is a construction warning sign on the right side, and horses grazing on the hillside in the background. The scene is foggy and overcast.