Mountain Lives

ARMENIA · 2025

Highland villages and gorge towns in autumn 2025 — the Ararat plain, the Debed canyon, the high pastures. The series moves between the pastoral and the abandoned, the sacred and the everyday — mountain farming and herding, livestock as economy, abandoned barns recurring as motif, and the coffee that always finds you indoors.

A person walking a cow on a grassy hillside with mountainous terrain and a river in the background.
Close-up view of construction tools and supplies on a concrete surface, including metal clips, pipes, and a rolled-up piece of fabric or and other building materials.
A dining table with four cups and saucers of different colors, a silver tray, and a white tablecloth with a lace pattern. The background shows a worn wall with peeling paint, a rectangular hole revealing an outdoor scene, and a cabinet with glass doo
Inside a church with a large congregation. Sunlight streams through a narrow window onto the congregation, illuminating the space with a beam of light. People are gathered, some wearing head coverings, and there is religious iconography on the walls.
A man in a black beanie and dark jacket standing outdoors next to a small, old stone church with a conical roof and a cross on top, surrounded by trees and mountains.
Mountain landscape with a bird flying, a church, and a cemetery in the foreground.

In these villages, children get the same two extremes: a makeshift pitch marked by use rather than design, and a proper sports ground that looks almost too new for the landscape around it.

Three children sitting outdoors on grass and dirt in a rural area with hills, trees, and mountains in the background. One boy is holding a water bottle and looking to the side, while a girl in a yellow shirt and another boy with a finger in his mouth
A small white soccer goal with a red soccer ball inside on green grass in an open outdoor area.
Young boy performing a handstand on a football field with other kids playing soccer in the background, surrounded by hills and trees.
A scenic mountain road with a sharp curve, surrounded by green trees and shrubbery. Several cyclists and a few cars are traveling along the road, with some fog in the background and mountains visible through the fog.

Livestock is not background. It is economy, weather forecast, routine, noise, smell, and traffic control. In a dark village barn, a polished Soviet samovar will stand beside an ATV quad bike, and a chicken will step between them.

Two cows, one black and white and the other brown and gray, standing on grass in front of a farm with trees, a house, and mountains in the background.
A row of cows standing inside a barn on a farm, with their backs and sides visible.
Group of white chickens and one brown chicken on dark soil ground.
A young tabby kitten with white paws and chest standing on dirt ground, looking directly at the camera, with a large rusty metal container in the background in a dimly lit outdoor setting.
A cow standing in a grassy field on a farm with trees, a house, and mountains in the background, under a partly cloudy sky.

And then there are the Nivas. Of course there are the Nivas. A 20-year-old owner told me, with complete seriousness, ‘Niva is culture.’ Hard to argue with that. On some roads, the Niva is an argument with rough terrain — small, stubborn, and usually winning.

A shoe stand with white sneakers displayed in front of an outdoor market scene, featuring vendors with red tents, parked vehicles, and a brick wall in the background.
A person is holding a smartphone taking a picture of an old white van with a rounded back and tail lights in a green field under a cloudy sky. Another person is standing nearby, wearing a black puffer vest and blue sweatshirt. In the background, ther
A man with dark hair, wearing a black jacket, standing in a dry, grassy, mountainous landscape with a white compact SUV in the background. There are utility poles and an old, abandoned building in the distance.
A backyard scene with large green trees, a fence on the left, and a dog walking on a dirt path in the yard.
A car driving on a wet, rural road with a dog crossing in front of it, surrounded by trees and power lines, under a dark sky.
A man with a beard sitting inside a black car, smiling, with a backdrop of trees and hills. A dog’s nose and part of its face are visible in the foreground, near the open driver’s side window.

GALLERY OF LIFE AND SMALLER THINGS

Old, weathered wooden boxes and crates with peeling paint and rust, placed against a wall in a rustic, abandoned setting.
An old, blue flatbed truck driving on a highway beside a rocky hillside with sparse vegetation.
A cow standing in a rustic outdoor enclosure with makeshift wooden and metal structures and a rocky ground.
A group of orange pumpkins on the ground next to a hay bale, with a chicken nearby and some small green plants, in an outdoor rural setting.
A view through a broken wall with crumbling concrete and rocks, showing the outdoors with hills and sky in the background, along with some overgrown plants and branches.
A person wearing work gloves and a cap is digging or planting in the field, with a brown horse grazing nearby. The landscape features grassy fields, scattered bushes, distant hills, and electric power lines under a cloudy sky.
A weathered stone wall with a broken window and an old rusty metal chimney pipe. There is a glass window lying flat on the ground surrounded by overgrown grass and weeds.
A group of white pigeons and a white dove gathered on green grass around a food dish, with one pigeon in mid-flight.
Yellow perforated metal table with three white coffee mugs, one filled with coffee, in an outdoor grassy area with tree stumps.
Ruins of an old building with a large open doorway and two small windows, overgrown with grass, shrubs, and small trees, with cloudy sky in the background.
Interior view looking out a large glass window at a green field with a cow grazing, stone fence, and distant mountains, with a wooden dining table and chairs inside.
The exterior of a house with a corrugated roof, a white door, and a curtain covering part of the porch. There is a wooden fence painted blue, some pink roses, and gardening tools in the yard.
Old stone building with weathered windows and a large tree in front, green grass, rocks, and mountains in the background on a cloudy day.
A view of an urban area with old stone buildings, lush greenery, and a mountain with rocky formations in the background under a cloudy sky.
Three apples resting on a weathered, wooden outdoor bench, with overgrown foliage and a mossy rock in the background.
Pile of watermelons on the ground in front of a tree with brown and green leaves, with rocky cliffs and dry grass in the background
Stacks of hay bales in an open field with mountains in the background and a clear blue sky.
A cow feeding in a green field with a person walking in the background near a rocky hillside and mountains.
A foggy rural road blocked by construction barriers with a no entry sign, power lines, hills, grazing horses, and construction warning signs visible in the background.

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