First Diana Markosian found her father. Then she found her grandfather. Then she found part of herself.

Markosian—an Armenian-American photographer—has spent many years shooting a deeply personal project called Inventing My Father about reuniting with her dad after being separated as a child.

She was in Armenia working on that piece last October when she said she became “emotionally exhausted” and needed a break. She was about to leave the country when she was contacted by an organization that wanted her to photograph any living survivors of the Armenian massacres.

For context: From 1915 to 1923, the Ottoman Empire killed massive numbers of Armenians. More than 1.5 million Armenians were executed, according to Armenian estimates, and many others were deported or sent