Dear Readers,
Last week, Maral graduated from law school in Los Angeles while Astrig reported from Ukraine. We are taking a short break to recharge and bring you new profiles and compelling stories from the ground in Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. With that, we leave you with one of our favorite profiles from our archives and thank you for reading with us every Friday. We are truly grateful for the community we have cultivated with you all in inboxes around the world.
Շուտով նորից կհանդիպենք,
Astrig and Maral
Joyce Boghosian: Meet the Armenian-American White House photographer who has documented world history
“A lot of times I’m seeing what’s happening in front of me but I’m not really experiencing it. I’m observing and I’m trying not to get involved because I’m thinking about my exposure or the right angle.”
Joyce Boghosian has spent the majority of her career in one of the most famous buildings in the world: the White House. As a photographer over the span of five U.S. presidents, Joyce has documented some of the most iconic people and moments in history.
She followed in the footsteps of her late father Harry Naltchayan, who spent more than three decades as a photographer at The Washington Post. Joyce’s parents were newly married when they immigrated to Virginia from Beirut in 1957, where Harry had served as Lebanese President Camille Chamoun’s official photographer.
From a young age, her father’s work made a significant impression on the budding photographer.
“He’d come home from work and bring his extra prints so that we could take them to school the next day,” Joyce, 54, says. “So, it was really exciting for us to see: ‘Hey dad, who did you photograph today?’ He always said, ‘No day is the same.’”
To attend: To Say With Passion: Why Am I Here?, a book talk tonight celebrating the first full-length volume of creative literature composed in Armenian by an American-born writer. The event will be held at the late author Tenny Arlen’s alma mater UCLA, where she arrived as an undergraduate in 2011 with no prior knowledge of Armenian. Her posthumously published book of poetry is entitled To Say with Passion: Why Am I Here? (Կիրքով ըսելու՝ ինչո՞ւ հոս եմ), a line taken from one of her poems, in which the Armenian language speaks about its own existence in the modern diaspora.
To watch: Դար-Դարիկ. կյանքը 2250 մետրի վրա (Dar-Darik. Life on 2250 meters), a short film about life in a little-known village in Armenia’s Shirak region. On the surface, what appears to be a simple rural community gives way to historical gems (literally) buried below ground.
To listen: Hayat Project, a band from Gyumri making waves with their original songs composed and performed in the dialect of Armenia’s second largest city. The video for their new single Հորքուրի ԳԱՆՁ (Auntie’s treasure) combines the artistry of musical theatre with playful pop melodies.
That’s it for today, see you soon!
Questions? Story ideas? An urge to say barev/parev? You can send us a secure email at namaknews@protonmail.com.