“Mob.” (Military mobilization), 2016

Seen from the Inside

  An intimate look at life around a remote border outpost in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic—through the eyes of a soldier (and photographer) who had “no choice between the rifle and my camera…yet still I took photos.” 

 For the past 11 years I have lived in Stepanakert, the capital of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, with my wife and two children. On April 2nd, 2016, the military conflict that brought the republic to life started again. On that same day, I was drafted as a private into the Karabakh Defense Army and placed at the most distant border outpost.

 On that day, I “died”: died as a person, as a photographer, as a citizen…I accepted the thought that I wouldn’t exist in this world anymore. I turned into a tiny spot…next to nothing.

 I hardly thought about home in the beginning; I almost forgot about it. It was the only way not to go insane. I had to defend this outpost and survive. Period. And then I found the way out of this inhuman situation, maybe the only way: I started to live for the sake of my younger brothers-in-arms, the 18-year-old conscripts. This is the point where I regained myself…the small spot that I had become started to grow.

 I had no choice between the rifle and my camera—it was my duty to hold the Kalashnikov. Yet still I took photos. These images tell the tale of my journey, from photographer to combatant and back to photographer again.

— Areg Balayan / Karabakh 2016