უკან

დოკუმენტური სერია

Patrick Bienert

ფოტოგრაფი

Patrick Bienert

Under the Shadow of a Veiled Mountain

The series taken in Armenia, follows several journeys to smaller villages bordering Azerbaijan in the northern regions of the country.The images serve as visual metaphors for fragments of collective memories, showing a younger generation shaped by history and resilience. In our memory, we create a world of personal meaning, where we belong because we remember. Mount Ararat is the national symbol of Armenian identity. It became part of Turkey in 1921, and many Armenians still consider it their cultural property.This nostalgia for Ararat is inescapable,especially since the mountain can be seen from many places within the country.The cloud formations around the mountain converge from winds coming from long distances.Centuries ago these winds were given names in connection to human states of mind. Every given name has a special meaning in Armenia.A name can give a hint about where a person is coming from and will shape their future personality. One of the most common first names in Ararat.

Patrick Bienert

Patrick Bienert is a German photographer who works on long-term projects of portrait, landscape and documentary photography. He studied photography at the Staatliche Lehranstalt für Fotografie in Munich. His photographic longterm projects are grounded on cultures and identity in relation to the history and its traces between the land and its inhabitants. He predominantly documents youth culture and transformation on the borders of Eastern Europe. Bienert has published the books Wake up Nights (2017), about young nightlife culture in Ukraine.East End of Europe (2020),about a pro-European generation in Georgia. Happy Springs (2023), about Ukrainian youth along the Dnipro River and by the sea, and Armenia (2024), reflecting fragments of collective memory and resilience. His work has been published in The New York Times Magazine, Double Magazine, The Atlantic, M le Monde and Zeit Magazin.