Tigran Hayrapetian lives and works in Yerevan where he has been heading the ‘Matit’ design studio for close to ten years. Outside his work in fashion and advertising, Hayrapetyan’s photography is engaged with current theoretical strands of the medium. Working with large and medium format analogue cameras, Hayrapetian imbues his photographs of natural and urban landscapes with dense layer of detail and tone, making them at once hyper-real and otherwordly.
His triptych ‘Requiem’ (2009) and ‘Untitled’ (Abandoned factory interior), both in Lusadaran’s collection depict defunct interiors of industrial buildings such as that of Yerevan’s old thermal power station. Both in intent and form ‘Requiem’ is a typological study that draws from the traditions of minimalism and refers to Bernd and Hilla Becher’s ‘aesthetics of function’. Through repetition, the ungainly metal mass of water pipes acquires a sculptural quality and a musical rhythm alluded to in the title. Trained as a designer, Hayrapetyan reveals not only of the aesthetic dimension of engineering architecture, but also the power of photography to re-envisage spaces and objects no longer relevant to society.