Hayk Adamyan started his career in 1970 while serving in the army, from where he corresponded with the Krasnoye Znamye newspaper. After returning to Gyumri in 1972, he worked as a photographer in a lifestyle service atelier. He has collaborated with a number of republican newspapers as a photo-journalist (Banvor (Labourer), Garun (Spring), Sovetakan Hayastan (Soviet Armenia), etc.), and from 1981 served as the head of the photo laboratory of Kumayri Reserve Museum. In the course of the Spitak earthquake in 1988, Adamyan's photographic archives were destroyed. Ignoring the ensuing complications, Adamyan continued to be active in the post-Soviet era, founding the Shirak TV station in 1992 and, in 1998, Gyumri Center of Contemporary Art. In 2000, the photographer decided to emigrate to the United States with his family.

Adamyan's photography shares close affinities with the humanist traditions of classical documentary photography. His numerous series reflect the unique lifestyle and colourful atmosphere of the photographer’s native city, and a particular attention is paid to the portrayal of the intimate relationship that the inhabitants have with Gyumri. Adamyan preferred to survey these emotional connections through the black-and-white format, since, as the author notes, for him ‘black and white photography is more a form of feeling. You know how much technologies have evolved now, digital, etc…, but I can’t put up with it. Colour often detracts from seeing the real. What is effective in black and white, can become entirely commonplace in colour. Shadows, mood, and clarity to some degree - this is what black-and-white photography is for me.’(1)

After moving to the US, Adamyan continued his practice as an independent photographer and has participated in a number of exhibitions involving local Armenian artists from Los Angeles.

1) Soghoyan, Yeranuhi. ‘Lusankarich Hayk Adamyan. “Tsnndavayrits heru – yes ashkharhi amenamiaynak mardn em”’ [‘Photographer Hayk Adamyan “Away from my Birthplace, I am the Loneliest Person”’, in Armenian], www.hetq.am, 2013, June 2

Vigen Galstyan, 2016