As a result of many years of field research, historian and philologist Argam Ayvazyan has been able to bring together the most extensive photographic archive of Armenian architectural and memorial monuments of the historical Nakhichevan region (currently part of Azerbaijan). Ayvazyan has worked at the Monument Protection Department of the Armenian SSR and the Art Institute of Armenian Academy of Sciences. He began studying and documenting the historical and epigraphic heritage of his birthplace from 1965, and has published numerous articles and monographs on the subject.

Thanks to Ayvazyan's efforts, thousands monuments located in this region, as well as other parts of Armenia, were recorded. Many of these were newly discovered and most no longer exist today because of Azerbaijan's on-going policy of anti-Armenian cultural vandalism. Often the only remaining testaments of their existence are those that have been preserved in Ayvazyan's photographs – in particular the images of the thousands of khachkars (cross-stones) from the medieval cemetery of Jugha.

The scholar’s enormous photographic archive contains over 10000 negatives. It is one of the largest documentary collections of historical Armenian architecture in the world and is currently in the process of complete digitisation.

Ayvazyan’s collection has served as the basis for a number of documentary films and a series of international exhibitions.

Vigen Galstyan, 2016