Arbi Movsesian

A Walk To The Paradise City

Have you ever felt that you are walking in paradise? I must be honest, I have such an opportunity in 2012 to be in one of the must artistic cities in the world, Vienna, Austria.

The city by itself inspires me every single moment. The architecture, The pavement of the Streets, Underground transportation, old buildings, Museums, and etc. I could walk for hours and hours and still be amazed by how beautiful that city was. I simply grabbed my camera every day and I started walking from a spot and I took photos. I photographed Churches, buildings, sculptures, palaces, details on the walls, colorful houses, Danube lake, and whatever catches my eyes in such an artistic way.

I took 6000 pictures with my digital camera and couple of hundred photos with my old film camera in 5 months time period.

I was in love with Vienna and still want to go there, I am sure I can take another 6000 soulful photos of a city which built in such a powerful believe and love.

I am an Iranian-Armenian. I was born in 1980 in Tehran. I started to like art when I was 8. I was listening to music all the time and I was performing self-created stand up comedy for all kids in our neighborhood.

My Father was an accountant but he was also a photographer. He showed me how to take photos and load the camera with films. He liked cinema and movies very much. So, do I. I started to go to theaters when I was 10 by myself. The pictures on the silver screen gave me such an unspeakable pleasure. Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to know my father. He passed away when I was 15. My mother always wanted me a person to be proud of and she always helped me to achieve my goals.

I also wanted to be a voice actor. I liked watching news anddubbed movies a lot. When I was in the middle school my teachers always asked me to read the books for other students. I am Armenian and lots of Armenians can not speak Farsi without accent but I was the only one in the school who could do such thing. The reason was because I grew up with Persian kids and we had only one Armenian family in our neighborhood who do not have any kids.

I started to sing when I was 17. I had a friend who plays keyboard and I sing lots of song back then.  Later I bough a guitar and I start enjoying music much more. My first music album was released on 2011 in Tehran. It is called “Parandeye Azad“ meaning “Free Bird“. In spired by one the most popular poets in Iran, Forough Farrokhzad. I wrote songs based on her poems and I added other song with my lyrics. Our band called “Old Friends “and one of my talented multi-instrumentalist friend “Teddy Sarkissian “was in my band. I was able to release the album on iTunes, Amazon and other digital music streaming platforms on April 2013.

I have created a Persian podcast on Soundcloud named “Radio Omid” meaning “Radio Hope” back to 2013. I wrote some stories and I was performing in that podcast. I also performed as a voice actor and audio book performer in Radio “Tooka” in 2014. Radio Tooka is a Persian radio based in Los Angeles.

I have made three short movies and you can watch it on YouTube now. Their called, Black Snow, Fever and “Goftegoo” meaning “Conversation”. Black snow is a video clip created by some photos and short movies in a snowy day in Tehran, my hometown. “Fever” is a psychedelic movie about a person who has a fever and cannot separate reality and surreal moment that he is experiencing. Conversation Is about a person who is talking to someone who loved for a long time. This movie was filmed in Austria, Vienna. I have a big passion for art and I am always looking for a way to express my feelings through my art work. No matter it is a photo, Music, Movie or a podcast.

Follow Arbi on Instagram @arbi_movsesian and listen to his music here.