Artsvanist, a village of 3,060 residents on the southern shore of Lake Sevan, has one of the highest percentage of labor migration villages in Gegharkunik province.

Tatevik Hovhannisyan, 34, in the fields with her son Karen. Tatevik lives alone with her son, daughter and mother-in-law between spring and autumn - her husband has been a seasonal worker in Russia for over 15 years.

Varduhi Badalyan and Harut Toroyan in a photograph from their wedding in 2011. Varduhi, 25, lives alone with their two daughters, her mother-in-law, and her husband’s grandmother of the year, as her husband leaves every May and returns in late November. He has not been present at the birth of either child.

Varduhi with newly-born Mane, her second girl. Varduhi says that she would prefer to have her husband with her now, when their children are young. “Who needs [a father] after 20 years.”

The family doctor visits newborn Mane.

Sheep in Dprabak, a village of less than 1,000 people in Gegharkunik.

Haying in Yereanos, Gegharkunik province. Left behind, yet not abandoned therefore not free, women raise the children their husbands often barely know and take on their shoulders hard farming work.

Mariam Chatikyan, 46. For the last ten years her husband has been commuting between Sarukhan and Russia where he heads every spring in search of seasonal work, despite his 2nd level disability. Education is key for women, she maintains, and is committed to do her best to provide full education to her 13-year-old daughter.

Hripsime Hovhannisyan lives in Artsvanist with her two daughters Termine and Hermine, of four years and nine months. When she married at 18, her husband was already working in Russia between April and November. Her two pregnancies were difficult - now 23 she is not strong enough to sustain another one.

This young woman found out she was HIV positive when she was expecting her second child. She contracted the infection from her husband who used to work in Russia. Once married, he migrated again but irregularly. As she was the target of her husband’s violence, she left, and lives alone now with two children, struggling with poverty and stigma.

A large, expensive house with an on-site small chapel stands out in rural Yereanos. The owners migrated to, and settled in, Russia, and return to the native village just a few weeks every year. Building sophisticated houses is one of the priorities of those who managed to get on more remunerative jobs - it is a sign of wealth and status.

A laptop in Khathun Jamharyan's house. Computers are increasingly popular in rural houses as new technologies ensure regular communication between labor migrants and their families.

Gohar Toroyan, 21, married in early 2017, and got pregnant one month after the wedding. Her husband left for work three months after they tied the knot. Marriages are common in winter in the region Gegharkunik as labor migrants return home. And there is time to get pregnant up to the spring.