Hrair Sarkissian is a photographer. Born and raised in Damascus, he earned his foundational training at his father’s photographic studio, where he spent all his childhood vacations and where he worked full-time for twelve years after high school. In 2010, he completed a BFA in Photography at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam. He lives and works in London since 2011. He uses photography as a way to tell stories that are not immediately visible on the surface. Employing traditional documentary techniques and using a 4×5 analogue camera, his photographic series consist of austere, large-scale images. Photography is his tool to search for answers related to his personal memories and background, and he uses this subjectivity as a way to navigate larger stories that official histories are unable or unwilling to tell. Hrair tries to engage the viewer into a more profound reading of what lies behind the surface of the image, thereby re-evaluating larger historical or social narratives. Once people become aware of the invisible elements behind his work, the physicality of the image is almost destroyed.