My younger self would never have believed me if I told her that everything she dreams about would become reality and turn out better than she could ever imagine.
I’m Mariam Megrdichian, a Los Angeles-based fine art photographer, visual storyteller and author based in Los Angeles.
Long before photography became the center of my work, I was already documenting life.
As a child, I used my mom’s flip phone to make little video diaries and later edited them in Windows Movie Maker. I didn’t think of it as storytelling then. I simply liked capturing moments.
Years later, after building a career in design and marketing, I returned to photography.
That return changed much more than my creative direction.
It changed the way I saw my own life.
My writing and visual work are rooted in the same purpose: to create something personal that still gives other people room to see themselves in it.
For years, I worked in marketing and business and never fully felt ready, or courageous enough to accept myself as an artist, or to believe that my work deserved to be seen.
Eventually, I made a conscious decision to return to the part of myself I had kept in the background and to build a life centered around art, creating, storytelling and expression.
That experience shaped the way I write and the kind of work I want to put into the world. I write about creativity, fear, purpose, change, self-trust and the courage it takes to choose yourself, especially when you have spent years doing what felt safer or more practical.
My work often begins with something simple: noticing.
I’m interested in the ordinary things that become meaningful once we actually stop and look at them.
Photography taught me to notice more, rush less and be more present in my own life.
Through both words and images, I want to encourage people to slow down, listen to themselves more closely, trust their own voice and feel more confident about moving toward the life and creative path that feels true to them.
A big part of that is speaking to other creatives who may still be doubting themselves, waiting to feel ready or wondering whether what they make is worthy of being shared. I know that feeling very well. My work comes from that place, and from the decision to stop waiting for permission.
My first book, I Found My Ikigai, It’s Photography. What’s Yours?, brings those worlds together.
It combines photography with short reflections about creativity, courage, purpose, identity and finding your way back to yourself.
Despite the title, it isn’t really a book about photography. Photography was simply the way I found my way back.
At the center of the book is a question I keep returning to: What makes you feel most like yourself?
My photography moves between fine art, street and cinematic work.
I care deeply about composition, layers, light and atmosphere, but I never want technique to become more important than the feeling of the photograph.
I want my work to feel human.
Sometimes reflective. Sometimes nostalgic. Sometimes quiet. Sometimes full of movement.
But always real.
I’m open to exhibitions, gallery opportunities, creative collaborations, visual storytelling, destination and hospitality projects.
If you feel our work could align, I’d love to hear from you.
mariammegrdichian@gmail.com
+1 818 659-0269