Armenak
Arzrouni is an Egyptian-Armenian photographer, born in 1901 in Erzurum
and moved with his father to Alexandria, Egypt in 1907. At school, he
had a passion for drawing. According to Maria Golia, Arzrouni had
apprenticed with the photographer Karapet Pabuchyan at the
Alexandria-based studio ‘Nadir’ in the 1920s. In 1925 he moved to Cairo
to work as an assistant to Zola, a renowned photographer and portraitist
at his studio in Madabegh St near Suares Square. Upon Zola's death in
1930, Arzrouni opened his own studio in Suares Square under the name
Studio Armand. It soon became one of the prominent photographic studios
in Cairo which include Alban, Van Leo, Angelo and Studio Venus. He
specialized in portrait photography, and took photographs of
politicians, film stars, famous cabaret dancers, sportsmen, as well as
members of the royal family. Arzrouni's style was flamboyant - as was
the custom in the 1940s and 1950s, but he had a more naturalistic and
straightforward approach than his more famous colleagues. In particular,
Arzrouni avoided overtly theatrical lighting. The clarity of space and
forms in his photographs, makes his subjects both very mundane and
surreal at the same time. In 1956, he opened a second studio in Soliman
Pasha St. He was especially well known for the elaborate settings of his
wedding photographs. He also occasionally received orders for
photographs of hotels and department stores. His son Armand worked as
his assistant as early as 1960, took over the studio after his father's
death in 1963 and continued to work under the same brand name. He signs
his photographs in the same way as his father.
Some of his photography
Credits: Armenak Arzrouni's biography by Vigen Galstyan, 2016.
Arab Image Foundation, Armand Collection.
Arab Image Foundation, Armand Collection.
