Mikhail Vartanov is considered an important cinematographer and documentarian of his generation noted for his artistic collaboration with Sergei Parajanov and Artavazd Peleshian.
Vartanov was born on February 21, 1937, in Grozny (Chechnya, Russia). He graduated from the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography in Moscow (1965). He had a close relationship with filmmaker Sergei Parajanov. He was first acquainted with Parajanov’s work in 1964, when he was still a student, having watched Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and the test footage of the unfinished Kiev Frescoes. They met for the first time in 1967, in Armenia, where they discussed the screenplay of The Color of Pomegranates (Sayat Nova) and struck a lifelong friendship.