Curator and art historian Vigen Galstyan pays tribute to one of Armenia’s most accomplished artists, photographer Herman Avakian, who passed away suddenly on Sunday. With his uncompromising devotion to the truth and artistry, Avakian helped shape the fabric of Armenian society.

In the context of autocratic, oligarchic or committedly neo-liberal regimes which continually propagate a coercive and incarcerating model of urban planning, the multiplication of such spaces as the 2800th Anniversary Park of Yerevan is organic, writes Vigen Galstyan.

The fire that severely damaged the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris highlighted how indispensable art is for humanity and exposed the fragility of all cultural legacy. It also indicated the profoundly unbalanced ways through which the global community has come to evaluate the intellectual production of different cultures and nations.

Vigen Galstyan takes the reader on a journey spanning a century of Armenian women photographers who carved out their own individual spaces and honed a personal vision that spoke to urgent, collective questions, often speaking the unspeakable and approaching the unapproachable.