Childhood Under Fire

Help Ani and Shushan put on their first joint exhibition: a visual archive honoring the lives of five children killed by Azerbaijani shelling in Artsakh from 2016–2023. 

Childhood Under Fire is a documentary photography and storytelling project by Armenian photographer Ani Gevorgyan and journalist Shushan Papazyan. The project preserves the memory of children killed as a result of Azerbaijani shelling and violence in Artsakh between 2016 and 2023.

Through photographs, family testimonies, and personal objects left behind, the project documents the lives of Sergey Hovoyan, Victoria Gevorgyan, Vagharshak Grigoryan, Gor Arustamyan, and Edvard Aleksanyan. Each child had routines, dreams, friendships, and futures. Rather than allowing these children to exist as statistics within conflict reporting, Childhood Under Fire restores their agency by sharing their story and the intimate realities of the families who continue to live with their absence.

This exhibition marks the first public presentation of the project, bringing together photography, recorded testimony, and personal artifacts to create a living archive of memory.

Your contribution helps bring this exhibition to life and ensures that these stories are documented, remembered, and shared. Supporters can contribute directly or purchase limited-edition benefit prints, with proceeds going directly toward producing the exhibition.

Donate or purchase prints here:
https://kooyrigs.org/childhood-under-fire

By supporting this project, you help ensure that Sergey, Victoria, Vagharshak, Gor, and Edvard are remembered not as numbers in a war, but as individuals with stories of their own. Thank you.