Yerevan/Mediamax/. TUMO Center for Creative Technologies and the HALO TRUST are delivering a two-week photography course in Stepanakert.

The courses aim to develop the skills of aspiring young photographers and raise awareness of the HALO Trust’s humanitarian work. HALO Trust conducts works to clear landmines and cluster munitions in Nagorno Karabakh.

The students, taking the course, will be introduced to the basics of documentary photography led by eminent photojournalist Scout Tufankjian, who first taught at TUMO Yerevan in 2013.

The students will create photo stories illustrating the nature, life and people of Karabakh. The stories will focus on the areas cleared by HALO, the local people who have benefited and the dedicated staff involved in making Karabakh safe.

“I am beyond thrilled to be back in Karabakh and at TUMO again!  The most recent conflict has really underscored the vital importance of HALO’s work in making sure that the communities of Karabakh are safe, as well as how critical it is to show the world what an amazing place this is.  I’m really excited to be working with such great and enthusiastic students to bring these two things into focus. I can't wait to see what they produce!”, said Scout Tufankjian.

The workshop started on May 12 and will last until May 21.

On May 19 at 8:00 pm, Scout Tufankjian will be giving a talk on “There is Only the Earth: Images from the Armenian Diaspora Project” book and her experience in photographing.

The lecture will be at the TUMO center in Stepanakert (Knunyantsneri 2). It is free and open to the public.

In November 2012 , Mediamax told about how Scout Tufankjian covered US President Barack Obama's election campaign, taking a photograph that became the symbol of Obama's victory, got re-tweeted for more than 800 000 times and has collected more than 4.4 million Facebook “likes” and 582 000 “shares” - setting a new record for the web.