By the order of the RA ESCS Ministry and within the framework of the “Assistance to Anniversary Programs” grant program, “Antares” Publishing House has published a trilingual photo book “Hamo Beknazaryan" (in Armenian, Russian and English).

RA ESCS Deputy Minister Ara Khzmalyan attended the presentation of the photo book “Hamo Beknazaryan”, held in the “Fireplace Hall” of the Union of Cinematographers of Armenia.

The photobook dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian cinema presents the legendary path of life and activities of one of the giants of the Armenian visual culture, the founder of national cinematography Hamo Beknazaryan. Most of the book's photographic material is published for the first time.

The photo book with pictures was compiled by Zaven Boyajyan and Ruzanna Bagratunyan.

ESCS Deputy Minister Ara Khzmalyan congratulated those present at the presentation of the book and emphasized that through this photo book telling about the founder of Armenian cinema Hamo Beknazaryan, a large information gap is being filled. Since last year, one of the priorities of the state policy, in particular in the field of book publishing, has been the processing and dissemination of information about Armenian culture in foreign languages. And the publication of this photo book has a certain meaning in the context of this policy. The idea of a photo book dedicated to Hamo Beknazaryan has been around since 2019. I consider the publication of the book a personal and public achievement since Hamo Beknazaryan and similar names are our exit visas, our passport to the big world, a great reality. Thanks to the legacy created by them and their activities, we entered into a large world family and found ourselves in great world processes. We have outstanding values that are really of international importance or at least interesting to the world as individuals who have ensured the participation of a country in major world processes. Hamo Beknazaryan is one of those names,” emphasized the Deputy Minister.

According to Ara Khzmalyan, the book will be distributed on the most important international platforms - in Armenian studies centers, diplomatic circles and foreign libraries. It is planned to disseminate electronic versions of the book and post it on world information platforms.

According to Zaven Boyajyan, very little literature has been created about Hamo Beknazaryan, while there should have been a whole library: “I have always thought that we owe much to Hamo Beknazaryan. I thought it would be very simple if the book consisted only of images and primitive interpretations of these images, so I tried to turn these inscriptions into texts. The book is very rich not only in pictorial material but also in texts. Basically, I emphasized Beknazaryan's memories when he talks about himself so that his personality and identity would be present in the book.”

Zaven Boyajyan, in addition to Beknazaryan's memoirs taken from the film director's autobiographical book, also used in the album episodes from Karen Kalantar's monograph dedicated to Beknazaryan and observations of the most important figures of cinematography -Sabir Rizaev, Grigor Chakhiryan, Suren Hasmikyan.

The book has an encyclopedic character: it also presents the Armenian cinema of the first decades, its dawn, the following years and the path passed by Beknazaryan, starting from the day of birth to death.

Most of the photos contained in the book are published for the first time. Most of the photos were provided by the Yegishe Charents Museum of Literature and Art.

According to Ruzanna Bagratunyan, there should have been dozens of books about Beknazaryan, but, alas, it is not so: “The photo album is a small but very important section of the entire archive, and I hope that in the near future, this archive will be fully studied scientifically and a scientific assessment will be given, which is important for generations. It is important that everyone has access to Beknazaryan's creative works.”

The evening was concluded with the screening of Garegin Zakoyan's “Hamo Beknazaryan: Monologue” film, which is a documentary on the life and activities of the great Beknazarian individual.