Recognised internationally for his conceptual photography, Hrair Sarkissian draws from personal and collective memory to uncover stories that official histories and records withhold or conceal.Recently shortlisted for the 2024 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, Last Seen(2018–2021) is the culmination of over three years of research and travel, a challenging endeavour during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Working with local social aid organisations, Sarkissian visited families of ‘disappeared’ personsacross Argentina, Brazil, Bosnia, Lebanon and Yugoslavia, asking each family if they could document the sites where family members were last seen. The series comprises 50 photographs that capture the latent trauma and inner worlds of these missing individuals. Serving as an anti-monument and public archive, each image is embossed with the missing person’s name and the year of their disappearance, evoking the enduring silence of their absence in domestic spaces. Sarkissian’s delicate use of light transforms images of corridors, staircases, front yards and bedrooms into living mausoleums.