Photographing an Armenian Newly-Weds Event in Ashtarak, Armenia

This isn't my first rodeo through the dusty and old environment of Ashtarak. It's a small town that some might call a city, located within the rocky and difficult terrain in the more southern areas of Armenia. It's like entering another world, passing by former Soviet Union factories in the desert with massive monuments and futuristic designs utilising Armenian stone, where there are no trees, and little vegetation. Cranes that look like mythical creatures glide above the long and mostly empty roads. The surroundings of the city are an adventure of their own, an area I could and do hope to spend many more hours exploring going into the future. From the aforementioned curiosities to the debris of old homes that themselves tell their own cryptic tales of a different era. The last time I came to Ashtarak, I photographed and abandoned USSR Yak-40 which sits above a cliff, relatively unknown to most in the era. I spent a brief moment at one of the churches to which I met the local priest that spoke excellent English, and watched their ceremony. 

This time I revisited Ashtarak, to the same church, but this time with the invitation to attend and photograph an event that was specifically to celebrate the joining of recent newly-weds. Armenians love a wedding, they go absolutely crazy for it, and what greater excuse to dance and celebrate than to get newly-weds together and throw another party, right? While I wouldn't say it was really a party, it was an event that celebrated their connections and wishing them well. Starting with a series of prayers within the church, the regular sort of ceremony one might expect. Followed by the newly-weds coming up to the front of the church and receiving their blessings from the priest as well as praying together. I didn't want to get too close to these people, they didn't know I was to be there and I wasn't wanting to disrupt their special moments together. So I stood a bit further behind and kept my distance a fair amount, mostly utilising the 85mm focal length lens. Given I was behind them, I chose to turn around myself and photograph the people behind, the family members and general churchgoers that were also attending.

Whenever I do attend something like this, I always find the reactions of those in the audience to be something rather compelling and worthy of capturing. While the main subject, after all, is the main subject. It does offer some contrast between the event and the people that have emotional reactions to it, and seeing how people overlook such events is such a powerful thing to capture. Family members showing their happiness, the elderly that look up to God, hand in hand with decades of faith that has been tested and strengthened. The youth which themselves have had faith injected into their upbringings and leading them to similar fates through an established culture and set of traditions. I particularly enjoyed the ways in which the natural lighting interacted within the church, after one of the younger men of the church had roamed its parameter and distributed a dense incense that lingered in both smell and visual density throughout the event. The sound of bells fill the church hall with each swing, a prayer echoing throughout being all one can hear as everyone attending stands in unison, in total silence. I shot a few photographs of the light, the way it impacted the people, giving them a beautiful backlight.

After a few prayers, the next stage of the event was to take place: something far more Armenian was about to unfold, and I had assumed the event was over at that point. Where we send the newly-weds off out of the church and leave. Instead, everyone went outside into the church garden, where a small fire was started. Armenian music would then play as families danced, ate some snacks, and the traditional practice of jumping over the fire and dancing around it began. For some of that time I ended up flying my drone and trying to get some really fun aerial videos and photographs, but the general environment wasn't easy to fly around: for one there was the church which was quite old. I was granted permission to fly the drone there but that concern of colliding remained. The second being that there was a busy road nearby and many power lines that I could easily miss. The third being a little bit of anxiety over flying in such a dense environment even though I had permission due to recently getting detained by the police for flying my drone and getting reported by a stranger. A few minor problems that had me slightly on edge, but I pushed my creativity with it as much as I could. 

The process of dancing and jumping over the fire is to signify overcoming a challenge. To proceed over something risky and dangerous and come out on the other side. Not necessarily related to the idea of marriage itself, but more relating to the life challenges one must face, and the faith one must have to overcome hardships.

I didn't get much leverage when it came to photographing the fire side of things, there was naturally a large crowd around it, and many different families wanting to witness and partake in the activity of dancing and jumping around the fire. I didn't want to push myself into that environment so much since I wasn't necessarily invited by any of the families, but rather just attended with someone else that knows the priest part of a group that contributed to its reconstruction. The last thing I wanted was to ruin such a special day for a group of strangers, so for the most part I used the drone here and kept it quite high up. Still a great time, and something I'd love to attend again one day with a bit more preparation and gear. For this I used just the Sony A6000, the 85mm F1.8 and the 35mm F1.8. Very versatile bits of gear, but I know I could push myself a bit more with it had I known what I was getting into a bit more.

Also I really love how some of the photographs look in black and white, removing the colour and letting the atmosphere and emotion take the reigns instead. So much fun!