~~Ara Oshagan, my cousin, good friend and partner in profound silliness, is the featured photographer on the Social Documentary website for his work on juvenile prisons in California. I have featured Ara’s work on this blog before, twice. ~~

Here is the link to the Social Documentary site:

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs169/1102126628934/archive/1116167209039.html

and here, the introduction:

This month’s Featured Photographer is Ara Oshagan for his exhibit, A Poor Imitation of Death. After spending many years documenting survivors of the Armenian Genocide and exploring his roots in Nagorno-Karabach, Armenia (resulting in Fatherland published by powerHouse, 2010), Oshagan has turned his attention to his US home, Los Angeles, and particularly youth in the California prison system, many with long sentences for minor crimes. In this exhibit, Oshagan combines stunning black and white images of young incarcerated men and women with photographs of their hand-written notes, poems, and letters, resulting in this powerful essay on young men and women lost to the bureaucracy of a society that does not have an effective solution to the problems of inner city minorities other than lock and key.

And here are the two links on this blog:

https://talinedv.com/2012/08/12/barely-photographs-ara-oshagans-transit/

https://talinedv.com/2011/04/10/reading-father-land-a-book-of-text-by-vahe-oshagan-and-photographs-by-ara-oshagan/