Vachagan Khachatryan was an architect by profession. After graduating from The Yerevan Polytechnic Institute in the late 1950s he got accepted into the Committee for the Preservation and Restoration of Historical Monuments as an architectural restoration expert.

Along with this professional line of work, Khachatryan was also periodically engaged in photography. He became an active member of the Yerevan photo-club, taking part in all the exhibitions held there. His works were regularly published by the local press, as well as in the special, 1965 Armenian issue of the Sovetskoe Fotomagazine.

Unburdened by the responsibilities of photo-journalism, Khachatryan’s photographs lean in the direction of lyrical realism. His favored subjects usually related to Armenia's cultural and historical landscapes, which Khachatryan often photographed during his research trips for work. Imbued with epical sensibility, these sweeping pictorial representations betray the palpable influence of Andranik Kochar’s documentary photography. 

1) Vahan Kochar, Hay Lusankarichner [Armenian Photographers, in Armenian], Self-published, Yerevan, 2007, p.180

Vigen Galstyan, 2016