Armenak Arzrouni ( hy, Արմենակ Արծրունի; 1901–1963), who worked under the

mononym A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person. In some cases, a mononym selected by an individual may have originally been from a polynym, a word which refers to one o ...

Armand, was a pre-eminent Armenian Egyptian photographer based in Egypt. He specialized in portrait photography, while carving a lucrative niche market. He became highly sought after by the Egyptian upper class and was the first photographer in Egypt to use photography umbrellas.

Biography

Born in August 1901 in

Erzurum Erzurum (; ) is a city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. The city uses the double-headed eagle as ...

, then part of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

, he came with his father to

Alexandria, Egypt Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

in 1907. At school, he had a passion for drawing. He started working as an

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

under Nadir, a photographer based in Alexandria. In 1925, he went to Cairo as an assistant to Zola, an

Austrian Jewish The history of the Jews in Austria probably begins with the exodus of Jews from Judea under Roman occupation. Over the course of many centuries, the political status of the community rose and fell many times: during certain periods, the Jewis ...

photographer and renowned portraitist, at his studio in Ard el-Sherif, near Midan Mustafa Kamel street. Zola sent Arzrouni to

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

to learn about the colorization of black-and-white photographs, as well as

airbrush An airbrush is a small, Pneumatics, air-operated tool that Atomizer nozzle, atomizes and sprays various media, most often paint but also ink and dye, and Foundation (cosmetics), foundation. Spray painting developed from the airbrush and is c ...

technique and the use of charcoal and

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

. Upon Zola's death in 1930, Arzrouni opened his own studio in Midan Mustafa Kamel under the name Armand Studio. His father built him a giant enlarger capable of handling negatives with large dimensions. By the mid-1950s, his first studio was threatened with destruction, so he opened a second studio in 1956, in Talaat Harb street. He specialized in

portrait photography Portrait photography, or portraiture, is a type of photography aimed toward capturing the personality of a person or group of people by using effective lighting, backdrops, and poses. A portrait photograph may be artistic or clinical. Frequentl ...

, and took photographs of politicians, film stars, famous cabaret dancers, as well as members of the royal family. The 1952 Revolution did not hinder his career, and he continued to take photographs of famous people, notably Gamal Abdel Nasser and foreign heads of state visiting Egypt. 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, and took over the studio after his father's death in 1963. He signs his photographs in the same way as his father.

References

* **

External links

1901 births 1963 deaths People from Erzurum People from Erzurum vilayet Ethnic Armenian photographers Egyptian people of Armenian descent Armenians from the Ottoman Empire Portrait photographers Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to Egypt {{Photographer-stub