Blandin’s visual account of the town is very intimate: tracing the aftermath of the earthquake, he captured serene mountain landscapes and personal details in flats and houses alongside portraits of Spitak’s inhabitants spanning several generations. “One of the reasons why the older generation often looks back is that before the earthquake, Spitak was one of the main industrial hubs of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic,” Blandin says. “The then prosperous city had for instance the only sugar refinery in the whole Caucasus, which exported sugar to the USSR, Mongolia and Iran, and the only lift construction factory in the country. Nowadays there are only a few small and medium-sized factories left. Given the economic situation, many men (young and older) emigrate to Russia for seasonal work and reunite with their families during the winter months. Some choose to leave Spitak after getting married or finding a job in Yerevan. But there are quite a lot of young people in the town. Despite an uncertain future, I was amazed by the strong sense of family, community, belonging and intergenerational support I witnessed. Family is a key value in Armenia.”