Inhabitants of the Empty

In 1988, a 7.0 Richter-scale earthquake struck northern Armenia killing at least 25,000 people. Thousands more were maimed and hundreds of thousands left homeless. Gyumri, Armenia’s second largest city bore much of the damage. Large-scale war by the early 1990s, the collapse of the Soviet Union, an energy shortage, and blockade that left landlocked Armenia with just two open borders contributed to exacerbating the region's already prevalent social and economic problems. Today, Gyumri has the country’s highest poverty rate at 47.7%. The city has lost nearly half of its population. Few thousand families are still living in makeshift shelters. Many of them are not eligible for new housing, since they are not considered as direct victims of the earthquake. During the Soviet era, these huge twin dormitory buildings on the outskirts of Gyumri accommodated around 60 families each. Today there are just four families living here, among decaying walls and corridors.

Biography Yulia Grigoryants is an independent photographer and producer from Armenia currently based in France. Her extensive professional background in documentary film production helped develop her storytelling abilities while covering social, cultural, and human rights issues around the world, including conflict zones. Born in 1984 in Baku, Azerbaijan, she fled the country in 1988 with her family because of the violence against the Armenian population, which was followed with a large-scale war in the early 1990’s. She grew up during a time of important political and social changes for Armenia and the region, with the transition from the Soviet system to independence, devastating earthquake, five years of war, and years of social-economic hardship, which still continues to this day. Her personal photo projects document life in border regions, ethnic minorities and social issues in the country. Yulia’s works have been exhibited and published internationally, including in Washington Post, L’oeil de la Photographie, Life Force Magazine, Life Framer, Fotodoc, etc. In 2015 Yulia’s photographs were twice exhibited at UN House in Yerevan, Armenia as a personal exhibition and as a part of group exhibition. In the same year, she held a personal exhibition in the border region of Armenia exhibiting her story from the conflict zone. In 2016 Yulia won The Best New Talent award at International Photography Awards and 1st Category Winner (IPA-CIS) in the Editorial photography category. She was nominated for the annual Lucie Awards (2016) and shortlisted for Sony World Photography award for 2016. Yulia’s work was also exhibited China, Philippines, Armenia, Russia and in May 2017 she had her first personal exhibition in France at the Council of Europe’s house in Strasbourg.