What is Armenian Joy?
Armenian Joy (Kef) is a feeling; a state of elated bliss, a celebration of life. The idea was conceived by NYC based artist Anahit Pogosian.
Armenian Joy is a streaming photography archive of Armenian life - composed of images of film photographs, collected from folks of Armenian descent from around the world.
Often the Armenian people are portrayed as survivors in sorrowing ways. This archival album shows the brighter parts of who we are. We are not only resilient. We're a benevolent folk, who know how to enjoy life. This project aims to unite the diaspora as one family, to inspire connection and serve as an act of resistance to the ongoing genocide and erasure of our ancestral lands and history.
Echoing the sentiment of the great poet William Saroyan; despite our losses, with every breath and chance meeting with one another - we create a new Armenia.
How did Armenian Joy begin?
Armenian Joy is a seed from the Armenian Creatives garden. During the summer of 2022, collective members were prompted to conceive collaboration ideas for the second annual AC publication. The collective group was brimming with talent and Anahit was overwhelmed with choosing one person for the collaboration and desired to find a way to collaborate with the entire group.
Deeply inspired by Cassandra Tavukciyans archival work of Armenian Women Artists and after much meditation and processing of their own grief as a widowed mother - they conceived this idea by finding a common thread of truth that unites us all - in the histories we carry through the memories captured in our personal photography family albums.
Seeing as how those with high achievements are still unrecognized, Anahit desired to create a space to honor those that are completely invisible - yet the most authentic conservators of our language and traditions. Our culture is carried in the mundane magic of everyday life that has been preserved by our loving families of elder generations, who endured heaps of injustice, to bring prosperity and privilege to the younger generations that are maturing now. They deserve to be recognized and celebrated for their paramount fortitude and sacrifice. These family members who chose to rejoice in merriment in the face of despair, are the true heroes and historians of our kin.
Joy is defiance. Choosing to focus on the positive aspects of Armenian life, this project aims to change the morose narrative of Armenians as victims of relentless atrocities and generations of genocide survivors. Doing this work provided them with healing their own broken history and created this space for all of us to heal collectively.
In what forms is Armenian Joy embodied in the physical and digital world?
The project exists in a few embodiments.
Physically, as a leather bound archival family photography album - with all images printed and arranged together; uniting the Armenian diaspora as one family. In 2024 three editions of printed zines were introduced, featuring images submitted from select contributors.
Digitally; as a database on a private cloud drive, backing up the digital files that were submitted to the archive. A website ArmenianJoy.com showing all submitted images to the project. An instagram account @armenianjoy featuring one image per contributor. Both the website and instagram are woven with images of historical figures of Armenian heritage courtesy of @ArmenianWomenArtists and found online.
How has this project grown over time?
Much like the process of germinating a seed and growing a plant, Armenian Joy came from a dark place and through a period of organic rooting has began to show its first leaves and budding branches this year.
After collecting over 50 images from the collective in 2023, Anahit launched ArmenianJoy.com to showcase the work online. As the root system established, Anahit wanted to make the project more inclusive and launched an instagram account @ArmenianJoy in April 2024 to open up to receiving submissions from people outside the collective.
Submissions continued to flow in and the album grew larger. The plant began to branch. The operations of the project became more demanding and funding was necessary to continue the work. Anahit began printing zines and t-shirts to help with funding the project.
In collaboration with artist Natalia Sookias, we hosted our first fundraiser at Sooki Studio in Los Angeles in July of 2024. After the successful event, we were inspired to start an online gift shop to continue to offer Armenian Joy inspired products to the community - to help fund the operating costs and future plans to turn the album into a book, host group exhibitions and much more.
What is the creative process of Armenian Joy Archive? What happens to the digital images that are submitted to this project?
Every digital submission received is printed on glossy photo paper, trimmed, labeled and arranged into the pages of the physical leather bound archival photography album.
All the digital files are archived on a private cloud drive database.
All images are uploaded to the website ArmenianJoy.com
One image per contributor is featured on the instagram feed @ArmenianJoy
Periodically, a zine (11”X17” leporello) is designed in editions - featuring 10+ contributors in each print.
How can I support this project?
Share the project with your loved ones. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook.
Join the family archival album. Email images of joy to ShareArmenianJoy@gmail.com or DM them to us @ArmenianJoy. No limits on submissions. Feel free to send in 2 or 20 files. The more joy, the better.
Shop our online gift store to help fund the operating costs of doing this work and contribute to the expansion of this idea into a book and much more.
What are the future plans for Armenian Joy?
Organic evolution and community engagement is what drives the growth of this work. We are steadfast, patient and flexible during every phase of our expansion. Above all, our priorities are to stay true to the values of this work; to unite the diaspora as one family, celebrate our rich histories and the generations before us that have provided us with the abundance to thrive today.
We are inspired to turn this archive into a book that features not only the images but also the stories about the families in the photographs.
We’ll be launching an interview series this winter in collaboration with author Kristin Anahit Cass - where we’ll be diving deeper with our contributors to start documenting the stories of every family that’s joined the album.
We’ll be creating a film component to the album in collaboration with filmmakers Kamee Abrahamian and Emily Mkrtichian during a residency that will take place in Spring 2025.
We plan to curate group exhibitions to show the physical album in person and create a platform for contemporary Armenian artists to be seen.
Last but foremost, we plan to continue to host more community Kef events; to uphold our cultural heritage of merriment and welcome non Armenians to break bread with us; as we celebrate life together and learn from each other how to live in unity; free of the symptoms of system oppression that impact us all, as one human family.
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