About

My name is Aram Vartian. My first and surname are Armenian in origin, though I am only half Armenian (my father’s side) and half Irish (my mother’s). Aram in Armenian translates to “high” or “exalted.” I like the name, dislike the meaning.

I have spent 35 years on this planet. The first eight were pretty good and the seven after that sucked. The three or four years after I came out at 15 were at once the most magical moments of my life and the most chaotic. SMYAL was good to me, high school was not.

So I dropped out in eleventh grade. I spent two years trying to figure out what and who I was supposed to be, met the first love of my life and then joined the Navy. Two and a half years later, the Navy kicked me out for being gay. The boyfriend stuck around.

We traveled a lot, mostly to small towns that had been built at the feet of a now derelict factory. Each had a 24-hour Walmart and a sixteen bay gas station right off the highway that was always lit up like Christmas.

At twenty-five I panicked. It was the first pang of time misspent, of an adulthood delayed. I had little to show for my quarter century of life.

So I set about learning web design, and a year later found myself at the Washington Blade applying for a job I had no business getting. I told them so twice during the interview; they hired me anyway.

Seven years later I had my first camera in hand. It was nearly an accident. I fell in love instantly.

Two and a half years later I would find myself at Metro Weekly, the Washington Blade’s primary competitor. I have found both my true artistic voice and a family to encourage it here. It is like no place I have ever worked and I am grateful every day for a rather charmed life in a city that I love filled with people I adore.

I’m a geek. I am passionate about art and color and light and storytelling. I love accents. I love purple. I exist in a semi-lucid state somewhere between reality and dreams on a near constant basis. I smile and laugh easily. I stutter, but no one seems to notice anymore. I love that.

My name is Aram Vartian and I am trying to be a better person than I was yesterday. It is nice to meet you.