These photographs were taken by hand or using hand-held film cameras with a normal lens. They would not have existed except for the friendship of Artaches Gyoletsian. Born in 1987 in the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, he died suddenly on Mount Ararat in 2011. He was always ready to lead a new day of exploration in his native land, looking for an event or a motif that would make me photograph. He was a great talker who saved me from being too busy chatting with the people we met. I could just follow him, be there and look around, and remain at war with the obvious. As we travelled together, he used to tell me an Armenian proverb as a running joke: “The one who cannot pray at home will celebrate mass somewhere else.”