Making her first experiments in photography in the closing years of the Soviet Union, Hasmik Matosyan is one of the few women in Armenia to have worked in this field during the 1980s. Some of her documentary portraits were published by Arvest(Art) journal. It appears that Matosyan was not a specialized photojournalist and used the medium on an amateur basis. Her portraits of cinematographer Albert Yavuryan and director-screenwriter Aghasi Ayvazyan give us some reason to believe that Matosyan was involved in the local film industry. These interesting examples of documentary portraiture are captivating in their unassuming forms and the relaxed immediacy of the subjects.

Vigen Galstyan, 2018