Biographical information about this photographer working in Yerevan just prior and immediately after the establishment of the Soviet regime in Armenia, has not been found. The collection of his photographs kept in the History Museum of Armenia is entirely related to the residents of the Arabkir village, located in the neighbourhood of the capital (currently a district of Yerevan). Most of these inhabitants were Genocide survivors, as was the photographer himself, we could assume. In his portraits, Matevosyan recorded the impoverished lifestyle of the villagers, whose squalid living conditions and worn-out spirits are conveyed with great veracity by the simple and unflinching images of the photographer. Matevosyan also shot landscapes of Arabkir’s surrounding natural environment, as well as photographs representing the domestic and work-related routines of the locals, which appear to have been made for ethnographic or reportage purposes.

Vigen Galstyan, 2016