GLENDALE – Author/Photographer visiting from Brazil, Norair Chahinian will be in town to present his new trilingual book, THE POWER OF EMPTINESS: Talking with Stones in Historical Armenia on Thursday, October 12, 2017 at 7:30pm at Abril Bookstore – 415 E. Broadway, Glendale, CA. Author will be introduced by special guest filmmaker, Eric Nazarian. Admission is free with reception to follow.
THE POWER OF EMPTINESS is an attempt to come to terms with the potentials and the impossibilities embodied at the heart of a return, a witnessing. It is the story of a fourth-generation Armenian forcefully torn apart and banished from his lands showing the courage to look the past, present and future straight in the eye. The photographs taken in Turkey by São Paulo (Brazil) born photographer Norair Chahinian strike viewers in a number of different ways. First through their witnessing of life in various regions of Anatolia ‘from the outside’, by someone who has come all the way from across the world. But more importantly, through their depiction ‘from within’ of the return of an Armenian to his roots in Marash, Urfa, İskenderun, as he visits the land of his family after a gigantic lapse of one hundred years.
NORAIR CHAHINIAN was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1979. His family roots back to Urfa, Marash, Iskenderun and Kessab. His passion in photography comes from his grandfather Avedis Shahinian, who, after migrating from Marash, settled in Aleppo and founded Studio Photo Shahinian. Chahinian has studied architecture and urbanism at Mackenzie University and has received a master’s degree in Art History at the São Paulo State University-USP in 2007. In 2008, he published a photography collection titled Armenia. He visited Turkey for the first time in 2012, to follow the steps of his family. In 2015 he exhibited in Diyarbakir and Urfa in Turkey. His photographs are currently on exhibit as part of the “UNDELIVERABLE: Postcards and Photos of Lives Interrupted” installation at the USC Doheny Library until December 18, 2017.
This event is presented by Abril Bookstore. Contact Arno Yeretzian at Abril Bookstore at (818) 243-4112 and noor@abrilbooks.com for any questions.