Alexander Ovchinnikov was a senior member of the Armenian Telegraphic Company and had regularly published his photographs in the Armenian and Soviet press. Most of his reportage work relates to the propagation of Armenia's industrial and agricultural development as well as urban construction projects. As noted by the correspondent of Sovetskoe Foto magazine, Ochchinikov liked to employ sharp contrasts in order to "overcome the technical dryness of the subject" as is evident in his series devoted to Kirov (Nairit) Chemical Plant.(1) With their brilliant formal solutions these images convey not only the power of industrial machines, but also the strange aesthetic beauty of such ‘inhuman’ metal architecture.

Unfortunately, the work of this talented Armenian photographer of Russian origin is now forgotten and the later creative and biographical trajectory is not known to us.

1) (unsigned), ‘V Obyektive Armenia’ [‘In the Lens is Armenia’, in Russian], Sovetskoe Foto, no.7, 1965, p.3

Vigen Galstyan, 2018