Victor Adyan has practiced photography since school years and his images, especially those of sporting events, were published in a number of newspapers in Baku.(1) In 1964, he became a member of the USSR juries and entered the Department of Journalism of the Leningrad State University in the same year, graduating in 1968. Moving to Yerevan in the following year Adyan continued his education at the Bryusov Institute of Foreign Languages, working as a photo-correspondent in tandem.

Making a foray into the photography of art objects, Adyan began to work more closely with book publishers. Numerous coffee-table books, such as Architecture of Armenia, Armenian Rugs, Young Painters of Armenia, The Art of Armenia as well as the 1986 ‘landscape’ book Armenia's Reservoirs (1986) were compiled using his photograph. The latter album was awarded with the Gold Medal of the VDNKH (Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy). During the Perestoyka period, in 1989 Adyan founded his own advertising agency called ‘Victor’, which published calendars and postcards, such as the Aznavour in Armenia photo-set.

After moving to Moscow, the photographer continued to practice in the commercial sphere, working primarily in advertising and fashion during the last three years of his life.  Adian's photographic work is functionalist and served mainly for illustrative and advertising purposes. Interested in ‘pure’ photographic documentation he aimed to create visually straightforward and unbiased records where the meaning was presented in a rather ‘telegrammed’ manner. Adyan's transition to color photography in the 1970s consolidated this approach which worked towards a completely naturalistic rendition of the subject.

1) For biographical details see Vahan Kochar, Hay Lusankarichner [Armenian Photographers], self-published, 2007, p.63

Vigen Galstyan, 2016