New Publication: “We are our Mountains” by Armineh Johannes

Four Eyes éditions is pleased to present “We are our Mountains” the first monograph by documentary photographer Armineh Johannes. This book brings together more than thirty years of images taken in Armenia and Artsakh/Nagorno- Karabakh, tracing the life of a people through war, exile, and reconstruction.

A Sensitive Territory

From the first war in Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh in 1989 to the Azerbaijani offensive in 2023, “We are our Mountains”  bears witness to the deepest moments in the existence of the Armenian people. Through patient, long-term work, Armineh Johannes has accompanied the upheavals of history at the scale of men and women. Her photographs, in black and white and in color, show faces, gestures, and moments of life that reveal the dignity and resilience of a people under attack — yet standing tall, unshakable like the mountains that surround them.

An art book and an object of memory

With an introduction by Tigrane Yegavian — professor at Schiller University, Caucasus specialist, journalist and researcher — the book gathers more than three decades of photographs. These images weave a narrative thread focused on the daily life, rituals, and ordeals of a community marked by war and exile, yet sustained by an inner strength. Conceived as a major art book, this monograph is also designed as an object of memory, where the photographic gaze dialogues with lived history, and where each image becomes a testimony passed on to future generations

A singular documentary voice

Armineh Johannes is a documentary photographer, born in Tehran to Armenian parents and based in France since 1980. Since 1989, she has returned regularly to the lands of her ancestors, in Armenia and in Artsakh/Nagorno- Karabakh, to document the daily life of a people through war, faith, exile, and reconstruction.

She is among the few photographers to have been present in villages of Artsakh during the first armed offensives in 1989. Since then, she has pursued uninterrupted fieldwork, always close to the Armenians. Her work has been published in the international press (Le Monde, Washington Post, Libération, Los Angeles Times, L’Express…).

Winner of several international awards for her documentary work in Armenia — ND Awards 2024, WMPO Photo Award 2024, EPEX 2024 — her series have also been exhibited at the Parliament of Armenia (Yerevan), in Paris, Arles, and later in New York in 2025. Her approach is guided by encounters, human connection, and a sincere love for her subjects.