Biography

Yulia Grigoryants is an independent photographer who documents the harsh reality of displacement, unrest and extreme poverty in conflict zones and border regions, especially as experienced by ethnic minorities. Born in Azerbaijan to an Armenian family, Grigoryants fled the country in 1988 to escape the violence perpetrated against the Armenian population. Her photographic practice is informed by her personal history of growing up in Armenia during the transition from Soviet rule to independence, surviving a devastating earthquake that killed 25,000 people and enduring half a decade of war that bled into years of ongoing socioeconomic hardship and scarcity.
Grigoryants’ work has been shown at Photo Marseille (2021); Musée Albert-Kahn, Boulogne-Billancourt, France (2020–2021); Escale à la Grange aux Belles, Paris (2018); and Council of Europe, Strasbourg (2017). Her photographs have appeared in The Sunday Times (2021), The New York Times (2020) and The Washington Post (2016), among others.
She has received the Prix Maison Blanche (2021); Rencontres Photographiques des Amis d’Albert-Kahn award (2020); and Press Best New Talent, 2nd Place, Prix de la Photographie, Paris (2017).
Born in Baku in 1984, she currently lives and works between Paris and Yerevan.
SAF participation:
Sharjah Biennial 15 (2023)

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