Founded in 1975 in New York City, Project Save Photograph Archives is the oldest institution solely focused on preserving and sharing the photography of the Armenian global experience. With over 80,000 hardcopy photographs in our collections, we bring to light the culture and history of Armenians worldwide through the stories that images tell.
Project Save is a living archive and open to all. Through various initiatives, outreach, and collaboration with organizations throughout the world, our mission is to highlight the dynamism, variety, and universal quality of the Armenian experience. In doing so, we not only preserve it, we humanize it, showing that the past is still alive in the present, and that it can illuminate the future.
The modern Armenian global experience is one of migration, divergence, trauma, and rebirth. We believe that photographs are one of the best ways to reflect the resilience, dynamism, and depth of that experience.
Photographs capture specific moments while also universalizing them—that is the unique power of photography. It can easily engage with diverse demographics across borders. When looking at a photograph, we often see ourselves and our shared humanity, in one way or another.
Photographs allow us to reflect on who we are today, as human beings, and what kind of tomorrow we want to wake up to.
As one of the important photography archives in North America, it is vital that in the next few years we move to a larger space that is better suited for our priceless collection and growing staff. An endowment is necessary to continue Project Save’s mission and protect its legacy in the long run—maintaining such a vast collection with all the hours and staff that it takes will not be sustainable otherwise.
