• Vahagn Ter-Hakobyan’s Work As a Cameraman and The Development of the Visual Language in Armenian Documentary Cinema

УДК: [791.44.071.5:791.229.2](=19)

DOI: 10.35852/2588-0144-2024-4-184-208

EDN: SXPAVA

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Eduard D. Ambartsumian

Сand. Sc. in Art History (Cinema, Television and other Screen Arts), Lecturer in the Radio and Television department at Faculty of Journalism
Lomonosov Moscow State University
Moscow, Russia
E-mail: eduard.tvkino@yandex.ru

Vahagn Ter-Hakobyan’s Work As a Cameraman and The Development of the Visual Language in Armenian Documentary Cinema

Abstract

An analysis of the specifics of camera work and the elements of consistent artistic and aesthetic conceptualization of the frame space in the works of one of the leading Armenian documentary cameraman Vahagn Ter-Hakobyan allows us to discover the features of the evolution of his creative style. Ter-Hakobyan's camera style is marked with a special nature of observing the characters and original technical solutions. It became one of the defining ones in the development of the visual language of Armenian documentary cinema. The visual structure of the films made by V. Ter-Hakobyan allows to assess the range of creative possibilities of the cameraman at the turn of the 20th — 21st centuries, synthesizing in his works the traditions of multinational Soviet cinema, centuries-old Armenian culture and the modern experience of the world cinema. At the same time, cameraman's innovation, in addition to the artistic one, has a technical component. An engineering thinking and technological competencies play the most important role in the process of implementation of creative ideas. The transformation and enrichment of the stylistic and figurative techniques of the documentary cameraman work in different genres arises in correlation with the creative concepts of the directors and the dramatic structure of the film. From the creative cooperation with the master of cinema A. Peleshyan in the films The End (1992) and The Life (1993) through the dialogue of the cameraman and director while working with numerous famous documentary filmmakers — E. Baghdasaryan, V. Hakobyan, A. Yeritsyan, A. Gregoryan, A. Khachatryan — V. TerHakobyan comes to his independent cameraman-director's vision and editing style in the films Ararat’s View (2018) and Life in Jazz (2023).

Keywords

Vahagn Ter-Hakobyan, Armenian cinematography, camerawork, Artavazd Peleshyan, The Life, The End, Land of Holy Rites, Matenadaran.

For citation

Ambartsumian E.D. Vahagn Ter-Hakobyan’s Work As a Cameraman and The Development of the Visual Language in Armenian Documentary Cinema. Theatre. Fine Arts. Cinema. Music. 2024, no. 4, pp. 184–208.

DOI: 10.35852/2588-0144-2024-4-184-208

EDN SXPAVA

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Received: 13.08.2024

Revised: 06.11.2024

Accepted: 12.11.2024