Photographer Hrair Sarkissian and Architect Todd Reisz Document Remnants of Armenian Churches in Turkey
UK-based photographerHrair Sarkissian and U.S.-born Dutch Architect Todd Reisz have embarked on a new project, titled “Marks of Oblivion: The Disappearance of Sacred Buildings of Armenia: A Documentary Plan,” aimed at documenting the remnants of Armenian churches in Turkey.
With the help of Kurdish guides and drivers, Sarkissian and Reisz are currently traveling in the Moush and Sassoun regions of what was once Western Armenia, photographing the remnants of churches and monasteries.
The two are next headed to historic An
The project seeks to document sacred buildings, which once anchored Armenian life but now survive only through a spectral existence. Central to this effort is the registering of absence—across Armenian landscapes where histories quietly sink beneath the surface.
In recent years, efforts have been made to restore monuments left behind after Armenian exodus, such as those at Akhtamar and Ani. These campaigns reaffirm the physicality and permanence of monumental stone structures. Yet, in countless other locations across present-day Turkey, many buildings are vanishing—some through violent destruction, others through an interplay between human neglect and natural erosion. These are the sites that Marks of Oblivion seeks to recover through meticulous observation and careful publication, retrieving them from the brink of historical amnesia.
The research and surveying component of this larger project will provide the material and knowledge for the subsequent phase: a photographic and textual work. This work will manifest as both exhibition and publication. Photography and language, both techniques of display, will respond to matters that currently escape perception. Through rigorous research and visits to identified sites, a photographer and an architect/writer will seek how to bring forward what is currently being suppressed from view.
Exhibitions are planned to share the project’s findings. At least two venues will host an exhibition that presents the research and images in a format independent of the book.
The lasting outcome will be a high-quality publication that is both a carefully produced art book and a diligent history. Included will be photographs by artist Hrair Sarkissian accompanied by texts by architect and writer Todd Reisz. The book will be distributed throughout North America, Europe, and Armenia.
Hrair Sarkissian (Syria, 1973) started his career at his father’s photographic studio in Damascus. Today he is considered one of the leading conceptual photographers of his generation. Spanning photography, moving image, sculpture, sound and installation, Sarkissian’s practice creates meditative dreamscapes in some moments, deathscapes in others—sites where the muted voice, absent from the frame, is temporarily offered space to breathe.
His 2020 exhibition at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, titled “Syria, Belonging Not Longing,” was the first solo exhibition of a Syrian artist in the United States.
Todd Reisz (USA, 1973) is an architect and writer. His work examines urban landscapes and the professions licensed to transform them. In 2020, he published Showpiece City: How architecture made Dubai with Stanford University Press, now translated into Russian and awaiting an Arabic edition. In 2021, he co-authored Building Sharjah, which chronicles that city’s modernization through a compilation of archival imagery, memoir and literature. He has overseen the editorial and design production of more than a dozen publications.
