"When ever you want, I'll tell you."

As a first-generation Armenian-American, born to parents from Aleppo, Syria, I find myself within a convoluted political and social time and space. On one side, a civil-war is decimating the country my parents once called home, while in America, the people elected a highly controversial figure into the oval office who has repeatedly stood firmly against the Middle-Eastern world. All the while, my Armenian, Syrian, and American roots define who I am in an exceedingly culturally charged world. I search for that which connects me to Syria, to Armenia, and to the U.S. This feeling becomes amplified by the ethnocentric, yet culturally plural environment of twenty-first century Los Angeles. In the current political climate, the notion of cultural plurality has come into question, and, as a consequence, my own identity has, too. My photographs draw on both personal investigations and current political events to shine a light on the irregular environments in which I have find myself and that function as a roadmap through which I must navigate. I use both digital and traditional approaches, as well as black and white and color to communicate and explore this duality.