Vladimir Mkrtchyan was one of the many advocates of artistic or ‘free’ photography in Armenia during the 1980s. Several of his photographic studies were published in Garun (Spring) magazine and other local publications. The photographer's creative interests are focused around themes of youth and street life. Drawing on the traditions of Soviet and Euro-American humanist photography, Mkrtchyan observed young people undergoing their transition into adulthood and attempted to relay their emotional states and physical appeal.

Sharply cropped, shot in the open air and with clever use of natural light, these impressionistic images aim to record evanescent moods and ambiguous impressions. The presence of adolescents in Mkrtchyan's works, however, is not decontextualized but is imbedded in the historical-cultural flow that was full of tense and dynamic transformations that characterized the last decade of the Soviet system.

Vigen Galstyan, 2016