Father

2024
published by Aperture

Father narrates Markosian’s journey of reconnection with her estranged father, expressed through a mix of documentary photographs, family snapshots and archival material, along with Markosian’s original, diaristic writing. In a sequence that is equally lyrical and elliptical, Markosian reflects upon the dissonance between the concept of fatherhood and the reality of the father-daughter relationship that she knows.

Born in Moscow, at the age of seven Markosian left Russia with her mother and older brother, eventually relocating to California. This move across the world would solidify, and seemingly finalize, a fracturing of her family that had already taken place. Markosian’s parents had separated before she was born, and by the time they moved to America her father was, in many ways, already absent from her life. Once in California her mother sought to remove even the image of him from their lives by cutting his picture out of family photographs. For Markosian’s father, her and her brother became missing children whom he tried to find for years. His absence created a profound sense of mystery and confusion in Markosian as she looked for him, both literally and emotionally, in different men.

Fifteen years since she last saw him, and with no picture to remind her nor address to direct her, Markosian set out to find her father in Armenia. Father captures Markosian’s attempt to build a relationship with him over a decade with each visit revealing new complexities about the parent she lost and how that loss, originally and over time, came to shape the person Markosian had become.