How We Live: Armenians Living on the Margins

Armenia is not an easy place to live.  Landlocked, isolated, and surrounded by either hostile or unstable neighbors (Armenia's southern border with Iran is its most reliable lifeline), Armenia struggled after gaining independence from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.  Earlier this decade, Armenia sported one of the highest growth rates in the world, but the recent global economic slowdown has kicked Armenia in the shins.  Despite the problems from the lack of resources, corruption, and a brain drain, most visitors to Armenia would think that based on all the activity and reconstruction in downtown Yerevan, the country is doing just fine.

But Armenia is struggling.  The World Bank estimates that 28% of its people live in poverty.

Last weekend we attended opening night for How We Live, a stunning display of Sara Anjargolian's photos that shows the cruel struggles that several Armenian families confront daily.  The exhibit's curator is Narineh Mirzaeian, a Los Angeles-based designer and architect at Gehry Partners. Sara, a city attorney by day and an accomplished photographer, has visited Armenia countless times, and her most recent trips have documented the hardships of some of Armenia's poorest families.

How We Live puts a knot in your chest from all the emotions that run through your body.  On one hand, the exhibit is one of the most breathtaking photo exhibitions I have ever seen:  40 large prints are suspended by intertwined wires that almost make you feel as if you are experiencing these families' pain.  The exhibit reveal's Sara's strength and success in completing this project:  rather than carrying herself as a voyeuristic photographer, she took pains to acquaint herself with these families, earning their trust.  The results are photos that make you feel connected with the families and their stories; at the same time, the modern setting in the Atwater Village warehouse in which these photos soar remind you that you are in a safe, affluent society, light years away from the harsh reality of Armenian poverty.

What struck me is Ruzana Sarkisian's story:

(Ruzana) and her four children have lived in a tin shack since 1992. For 12 years, they had no electricity. One night, Ruzana got in bed in the darkness and did not see that a scorpion had crawled underneath the covers. She was bitten by the scorpion and incapacitated for over a month. The nearest water source to the Sarkisian’s shack is a one-hour roundtrip walk – a trip the four Sarkisian children take turns making every day to carry water home. The family scavenges in the local garbage dump to collect plastics, metals, and glass to sell for food money. The Sarkisians do not have a toilet, they have been using the open fields around their shack as their toilet since 1992. - Nubarashen neighborhood, Yerevan, Armenia, 2009. - Quoted from email correspondence with Sara Anjargolian

Lack of safe, clean water has a heinous tie to poverty.  Most studies estimate that about 1 billion people like Ruzana's family have no acccess to clean water; and about 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.  Families like Ruzana's cannot hope to be productive members of society if they cannot even benefit from the most basic needs.

Please see more information at the How We Live site.  Sara Anjargolian's work can be viewed here.

Click here to donate to the Tufenkian Foundation and learn more about its work, which benefited from How We Live's opening night.

Despite their dire situation, many of the people Sara profiled still have hope. Let's make sure that society gives them a chance.

The exhibit is still open, well worth the visit if you are in Southern California:

Gallery hours:
Friday April 2: 7-10pm
Saturday April 10: 6-10pm
Sunday April 18: 6-9pm
*EXHIBIT CLOSES APRIL 18

Casitas Studios
3229 Casitas Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90039 (Atwater Village)

Schools and community groups may email info@howwelive.org to schedule tours.

Special thanks to Sara Anjargolian for sharing these photos with us.