FATHER-SON BOOK REVEALS RICH HISTORY OF ARMENIAIN PHOTOGRAPHS, ESSAYS
NOVEMBER 11 AT THE LEVANTINE CULTURAL CENTER

What: Photography presentation, conversation and book signing with Ara Oshagan
When: November 11, 2010,7:30 pm (doors open at 7pm)
Price: Suggested donation of $10 is requested, or purchase of an autographed book
Where: Levantine Cultural Center
5998 W. Pico Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90035
Ample street parking

[Los Angeles- October 26, 2010] From a unique collaboration between Ara Oshagan, a photographer living in Los Angeles and his writer father,Vahé Osahgan-a famous author in Armenia-comes the first photographic and bilingual book about Armenia and the Karabagh region to be published by an American publisher. While Ara Oshagan's stunning photographs depict Armenian life at present, the collection of his father's essays which accompany them touch upon diverse topics from throughout the area's rich history. Taken together, the text and images are symbolic and deeply connected, like the father and son who produced the work.

Ara Oshagan is a photographer whose work revolves around the intersecting themes of identity, community and memory. With a major grant from the California Council on the Humanities, Oshagan's body of work entitled "Traces of Identity," was exhibited at the LA Municipal Art Gallery in 2004. His late father, Vahé Oshagan is the author of eight volumes of poetry and six volumes of prose fiction, short stories, plays and literary criticism. Over his 50 year career he came to be regarded as one of the leading Armenian writers of the last quarter of the 20th century.

Ara Oshagan will be presenting his book on November 11 at the Levantine Cultural Center with a discussion and slide show of photographs from the book.

More on The Father Land

Father Land is a poetic and personal journey through the rugged and history-laden landscape of Karabagh/Armenia. A family steeped in Armenian literature and art, Vahé and Ara Oshagan's work is the result of an intensely felt connection to their heritage and homeland. Father Land is a literary and visual contemplation of Karabagh's present-day, its history and its culture, as well as a meditation on transnational identity, land and paternal bonds.

                                                                 ###