Levon Iskandaryan became interested in photography from his school days. He has worked as a staff photographer in the editorial of the Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia and has collaborated as a freelance photo-correspondent with magazines such as Garun (Spring) and Sovetakan Hayastan (Soviet Armenia).(1)

The photographs he published in Garun are anecdotal genre scenes as well as portraits, landscapes and wildlife images. Iskandaryan’s worldview was closely aligned with the tradition of humanist photography practiced by the likes of Henri Cartier-Bronson, with its imperative of catching the ‘decisive moment’. This is precisely why Iskandaryan’s photographs often depict people in motion or in the flow of daily life. His street snapshots are particularly interesting, which distinctly make manifest Iskandaryan's optimistic and life-affirming view of life. But the photographer did not limit himself to making sketchy observations of day to day moments. The impressionistic textures and cleverly constructed compositions of his photographs are never an end onto themselves but serve as the expressive means for revealing the realist ideology of the image content.

Like other Armenian photo-journalists of his generation, Iskandaryan frequently took part in exhibitions of artistic photography held in Yerevan and abroad.(2) In the early 1980s, he also joined Erebuni club of photo-enthusiasts, which counted among its members Gagik Harutyunyan, Vahan Kochar and several other prominent Armenian photographers.

1) (unsigned), 'Levon Iskandaryan' [in Armenian], Garun, no.11, 1984, p.80

2) Unfortunately we don't have precise details of which overseas exhibitions Iskandaryan took part in.

Vigen Galstyan, 2016