‘It’s about making amends’: the artist who spent three months trying to make amends with her ex | Drawing

Fgoing in and then out of love is a universal experience that often brings sadness, grief and heartbreak, and time, hope and healing. A photographer Diana Markosian he used his camera lens to document these complex ideas in his new project, It has been changed.

He brings the viewer on his journey of having, losing and regaining love, in a project that mixes literature and fiction. “(This time) they were no longer what they were, and I wanted to bring them back,” he says. “I wanted to feel like I could be part of my story again.”

To document their relationship, Markosian and his team worked with an actor to play his former partner. Each photo of the group, which has lasted for three months, is a picture of a real moment that he shared with his ex and now shared between him and the actor. Her connection with him was intentionally made to be treated as a companion in the series so that her experience felt as real as possible.

As an actor, he visited Miami, Paris, Naples, Capri and Nice, all places he visited with his old friend. “These places have pre-existing love stories,” he said. “They are already made up of traditional stories of love, desire and good experiences.”

They stayed at the same hotels and did what they had done before, describing the experience as painful but painful. He said: “It hurts me so much to see it being changed, to see the memories being erased, and I didn’t want to be in that way anymore. “I’m very happy that the work was done quickly.”

One of the most romantic moments he recreates with the model is shown in a photo of them sitting in the bathroom, holding each other with a bright red light around them. Their vulnerability allows the viewer to imagine a difficult moment between two people whose past love never existed, encouraging empathy and encouraging the audience to reflect on their past relationship.

Creating these intimate pictures helped him reflect on his journey. “I wanted to acknowledge how the space itself could be used,” he says, before adding: “If anything, (the work) just showed me how much I love this man.”

For the past 16 years, Markosian has not left his camera, often using it to go back and understand the past. “Art has given me a way to change. I was learning to write, and suddenly I found myself holding the camera and not wanting to let it go; it just became a friend in my life,” he says.

He first picked up a camera at the age of 20, while studying at Columbia University. After graduating with a journalism degree, he wanted to see the world, so he returned to Moscow, Russia, where he was born. There he taught himself how to use a camera.

Today, his lens serves as a tool to reconnect with his past and reclaim it as his own.

In the past, a very popular image Creating My Father, he demonstrates his unique ability to reveal the unseen past through his images. Using the book over 10 years, he describes his journey to find his father after 15 years of not seeing him, after he moved to California in 1996 from Armenia, where he lived.

“Dad, my previous work of the last ten years, it’s all rooted in memory, and I think what’s good about memory, there’s fiction, interpretation, and imagination,” he says. “So I think I like being in this part because nothing is real.”

His interest in the blurred line between reality and interpretation transforms reality into his latest work. Her scenes in Replaced recreate the vulnerable moments she shared with her former partner. Through photographs and old documents, she ponders her feelings after her ex-partner replaces her with someone new in her life.

This exhibition, now on display at the Gallerie d’Italia in Turin, Italy, shows how they felt through the evolution of their relationship. The gallery is a picture of the hotel she went to with her ex. The pictures on the walls are divided between two spaces: on one side is a pink wall representing the love they shared, and on the other side is a dark black wall representing the love they lost.

Reminiscing about these times became “a little frustrating” for him when he was confronted with his past, he says. He said: “I wish I had another book to make, and it wasn’t emotional, and it would be something else.” I say this is a love story because that is what it is.

For Markosian, the purpose of this project is not to end her past relationship, but to heal and reflect on the past. He said: “It’s not that you’re in control of someone. He sees his image helping someone with a heart problem. “What I hope,” he says, “is that someone can recognize themselves in my work, and, in doing so, begin to find their own way to heal.”