Wolfgang Kunz's Photographic Collection - Turkey

Armenier – Woher/Wohin [Armenians – Whence/Whiter]. This was the title of Wolfgang Kunz’s photo book, which he authored in 1985-1986. The renowned photographer traveled to Soviet Armenia in 1983 and again in 1985; then visited Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, and Soviet Armenia again, taking hundreds of photographs in numerous cities and locales.

The connection between Wolfgang Kunz and Armenians (and their history) was forged in the 1970s, when during a holiday in Tbilisi, Kunz spent a few days in Soviet Armenia. In 1984, he traveled to Turkey to work on an article about Armenians for the German periodical GEO. Kunz was only the photographer for this article, which was written by someone else. When this article appeared in the February-March 1986 issue of GEO, it created an uproar in the German-Armenian community, as the author had promoted the Turkish government’s denialist arguments about the Armenian Genocide. The Armenians of Hamburg – the city in which Kunz lived and worked at the time – organized a small demonstration against the writer of the article. This prompted Kunz to investigate Armenians and their history more closely. Later, the French version of GEO published a different article on Armenians, written by Claude Mutafian but still using Kunz’s photographs. This time, Armenians had no reason to protest. On the contrary, this second article was a victory against the denial of the Armenian Genocide.

In November or December 1984, in Hamburg, Kunz met the Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia, Karekin II Sarkissian (1932-1999), who was in Germany on an official visit. The Catholicos suggested that Kunz visit Lebanon and Syria the following April, to better acquaint himself with Armenians and to personally attend commemorations of the Genocide. The prospect appealed to Kunz. That same year, in Hamburg, he met shoe manufacturer and trader Gerard Barsoumian, a Lebanese-Armenian who had traveled to Hamburg to purchase a tachometer for his Porsche car. Barsoumian, too, encouraged the photographer to visit Lebanon, and even expressed a willingness to help with this plan.

On April 18, 1985, Kunz traveled from the airport of Berlin to Beirut aboard an East German Interflug airplane, at a time when Lebanon was still in the throes of its civil war. During this same trip, Kunz also visited Syria.

Once all the photographs for the book were ready, Kunz began working on the preparation of the various chapters. In this process, he collaborated with German academic Tessa Hofmann. Kunz divided his book into three chapters – Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria. To supplement these sections, Tessa Hofmann wrote chapters on the history of the Armenian Genocide and of Soviet Armenia. The Catholicosate of the Holy See of Cilicia in Antelias expressed a desire to translate the book from German into English and to participate in the publication process.

The central theme of the book was the Armenian Genocide. Only one of the chapters, written by Tessa Hofmann, directly presented the history of the Genocide. The other chapters, especially those concerning the photographer’s journey through Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey, were more akin to a travel chronicle at first glance. But in reality, the Genocide of 1915 was a constant presence even in those sections of the book. Kunz endeavored to examine Armenian community life via the lens of the Genocide and of the memory thereof.

It is no coincidence that his visit to Syria and Lebanon in 1985 took place in the month of April. On the 24th of that same month, Armenian communities commemorated the 70th anniversary of the Genocide. In Syria, Kunz visited Deir ez-Zor, where the foundations of an Armenians church were being laid. The book is rich with the testimonies of Genocide survivors. Kunz’s journey also coincided with attacks on Turkish targets across Europe by armed Armenian organizations. Kunz was absorbed by the lives and history of Armenians. In his writing, we see that he felt the same pain, joy, pride, sorrow, and rebellion that an Armenian would feel. He expressed himself just as an Armenian from the 1980s would. It is as if he had been adopted by the Armenian nation, and had himself adopted the Armenian nation as his own.

Given this warm relationship with the Armenian community, one would assume that Kunz’s book project would proceed smoothly and conclude successfully. Unfortunately, this was not the case. In Kunz’s archives there is correspondence involving multiple individuals, which shows that at the initial stages, efforts to publish the book proceeded smoothly, but eventually, progress stalled, and the book was never published. The main correspondents were author/photographer Kunz, the chancellor of the Catholicosate of the Holy See of Cilicia in Antelias, and the New York Prelacy of the Holy See of Cilicia. On the instructions of Catholicos Karekin II, the New York Prelacy was tasked with translating the book into English. Michael Papazian translated the entire book, as well as the captions of all photographs, from German into English. The book consisted of 220 pages and contained 228 photographs. After reading the English translation of the book, Catholicos Karekin II, via the chancellor of the Catholicosate, expressed certain reservations on some of the sections of text, suggesting that they be removed or edited. Kunz agreed. The correspondence leaves the impression that the book was to be published in both Germany and the United States, and that the Catholicosate was willing to assist with the costs of publication.

This correspondence dates from 1986 to 1991. During this time, Leninakan (Gyumri) experienced a catastrophic earthquake, popular protests erupted in Yerevan, and the crisis of Nagorno Karabakh began. We presume that it was due to these upheavals in both Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora that Kunz’s book was first neglected, then forgotten.

In 2024, in view of his advanced age, Wolfgang Kunz decided to donate his rich photographic collection – including his photographs on Armenian themes – to the Berlin Public Library (bpk Fotoarchiv, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz). One of this institution’s employees and a friend of Houshamadyan, Meliné Pehlivanian, suggested that Kunz publish some of his photographs of Armenian life on the pages of our website. Kunz agreed, and thus began our collaboration with the renowned photographer.

The Turkey of 1984, which Wolfgang Kunz visited in search of traces of Armenian life and Armenian memories, was a police state of the strictest type. The country was ruled by Kenan Evren, the leader of the 1980 coup d’etat. Political persecution was commonplace, and the Kurdish uprising had begun in the eastern provinces. Attacks by Armenian armed groups on Turkish targets in the West had sparked renewed interest in Armenians and the Armenian Question. The Turkish authorities reacted to all this by decreeing that any mention of the Armenian Genocide or Armenian history in Turkey, even the public utterance of the word “Armenian,” could be considered a crime punishable with imprisonment. This tense situation was exacerbated by the atmosphere created by the Cold War. Turkey, a member of NATO, had a very long border with the Soviet Union, and many sites in the region were considered military zones. For this reason, Wolfgang Kunz was denied a permit to climb Mount Ararat and was forbidden from taking photographs when he visited the ruins of the city of Ani.

This was the prevailing atmosphere in Turkey when Wolfgang Kunz toured the country to chronicle traces of Armenian life and Armenian presence. First, he visited the German embassy in Ankara, where he was bluntly told that the topic he had chosen was “dangerous.” When visiting the eastern provinces, Kunz often encountered obstacles by the military authorities. He also noticed that when representatives of the official authorities were absent, the locals, especially the Kurds, spoke about the Armenians without any taboos. For them, the Armenian was not the demon depicted by the official authorities. Kunz’s visits to the Armenian communities of Istanbul, Mousa Dagh, and Diyarbakir were characterized by warm hospitality, and he was welcomed with open arms. But his Armenian interlocutors were extremely reluctant to make political statements. It would be more accurate to say that they avoided talking of Armenian history and politics altogether. It was well-known that Wolfgang Kunz earnestly wished to meet Patriarch Shnorhk Kalousdian and to interview him – he wished to speak to this religious leader of his experiences as an orphan who had survived the Genocide and of his later life. But this interview would never happen. He was told that he could photograph the Patriarch, but his request for an interview was denied. Clearly, given the level of surveillance to which he was subjected, the Patriarch had adopted an extremely prudent attitude and did not wish to put his community in any danger.

Wolfgang Kunz was born in Augsburg, in 1949. He was the third child of artist Karl Kunz and historian Ilse Kunz. On February 25, 1944, during the bombing of Augsburg, the family home was destroyed, alongside most of Karl Kunz’s paintings. After this catastrophe, Wolfgang’s mother began working as a teacher and became the family’s breadwinner, which allowed Karl to continue working as a freelance artist.

In 1953, the family moved to Weilburg (in Hessen). There, in 1959, Wolfgang Kunz completed his secondary education. In 1960, he moved to the city of Frankfurt, where he lived with his father, who had been renting a studio in this city since 1957. Wolfgang wished to become a typographer, and he began studying typesetting. It was during these years that he began attending night classes at the Frankfurt Städelschule, where he learned how to draw nudes and still lives. It was also around this time that he began taking pictures with a camera that he had purchased. Wolfgang Kunz became immediately enamored with this camera.

Photography had entered the life of Wolfgang Kunz. He converted his room, next to his father’s studio, into a photographic dark room, with facilities only for sleeping. He completed a three-year apprenticeship in typesetting but remained enamored with photography. He hitchhiked his way to Paris, Brittany, then Ireland, where he eagerly practiced photography. He was inspired by the photo book Subjective 2 by Otto Steinert. In 1963, Kunz was accepted into the Folkwangschule (university) of the city of Essen, where Steinert lectured. But Kunz was convinced that he had to forge his own way, and thus postponed his enrollment at the university by a year. Art critic Hanno Reuter recognized Kunz’s talent, wrote about him, and paved the way for his photographs to be published in the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper.

In 1965, Kunz had the fortune of meeting celebrated photographer Thomas Höpker. For a while, Kunz worked in Höpker’s dark room and closely studied the professional photographer’s works.

In 1966, Kunz bought a Leica camera, secured a grant to travel to London, and spent a whole year photographing the revolutionary youth culture of the British capital (Swinging London). After returning to Hamburg, he joined the editorial team of the Stern photographic periodical. After working for Stern for three years, he began working for the Zeit periodical. Ultimately, he preferred working as a freelancer and refrained from accepting permanent positions. With his camera, he traveled to various corners of the globe from Hamburg. He often photographed locations in crisis, such as North and South Vietnam, Northern Ireland, and Namibia; in addition to Turkey, Soviet Armenia, Lebanon, and Syria.

In 1983, with 14 partners, Wolfgang Kunz founded the Bilderberg photographic agency in Hamburg. After the reunification of Germany, from 1995 to 1999, he taught photography at the Weißensee Academy of Art in Berlin. Since then, he has lived in Berlin.