GLENDALE— Vahé Peroomian’s recently published e-book, A Photographic Journey of my Homeland, Armenia is a 220-page collection of 12 sweeping photo essays chronicling Peroomian’s travels and experiences in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh from 2004 to 2011, during which he spent over 90 days in his ancestral homeland.
In addition to road trips to well-known, as well as many lesser known, ancient sites, churches, and monuments, the essays include his experiences covering the 2008 presidential elections, commemorations of the Armenian Genocide, and the unveiling of a millennial church discovered in the forests of Karabakh. The book also features 215 stunning color and black and white photographs from these voyages.
“With every short walk, and with every kilometer driven, I wiped clean the slate of my early impressions of Armenia, and fell in love with the vibrant landscape, teeming with life, with beauty, and with ancient wonders,” writes Peroomian, who had first visited Armenia in 1980, at the height of the cold war and of Soviet rule and suppression of Armenian nationalism and identity.
Vahé Peroomian is a space scientist by profession, but has taken every opportunity to pursue his fascination with photography and the beauty of the Gaian landscape. He is a self-trained photographer, and prefers a hands-on approach and independent experimentation with photographic styles and techniques. He has found that the same off-the-wall approach that works in solving physics problems helps him see landscapes in a new light as well. The self-similar shapes in landscapes and the play between cloud and landscape that characterize many of his photographs are a manifestation of this viewpoint.
Peroomian’s love of photography as a child and young adult blossomed into a passion fourteen years ago. Since then, he has used every opportunity, be it an extra day during a space science conference, a visit to a national park, a road trip up the California coast, or the trips to Armenia documented in this book, to pursue this passion.
A Photographic Journey of my Homeland, Armenia is available for download for $9.99.
