Spotlight: Who was the Armenian Genocide survivor who founded the first photography studio in Gaza?
Presenter: Lizzy Vartanian
Delivered: London on January 21, 2024
Last year Lizzy gave an afikra presentation on how an Armenian priest, Yessai Garabedian, opened the first photography studio in the whole Arab region in a convent in Jerusalem in the 1860s. The first commercial studio was subsequently opened in the 1880s by one of his protegees, Garabed Krikorian. This deepened her interest in the impact of Armenians and photography in the Arab world. She later came across an article in Vice about an Armenian photographer from Gaza and learned that he opened the very first photography studio in Gaza.
Sources & Future References
Rediscovered Photos of Gaza Reveal a Lesser-Known Side of Its History
Vice Uses Archive of Gaza’s First Photographer for Zionist Propaganda
The Armenian photographer who captured life in Gaza on camera
Note: All community presentations are prepared & presented by non-experts on the subject. They are sharing information in the hopes of spurring interest in that subject.
About Afikra Community Presentations
Delivered and prepared by afikra Community members, the presentation’s goal is to showcase the presenter’s curiosity and research and share some knowledge on a topic related to the Arab world’s histories and cultures. The presentation is the culmination of the afikra coaching process to help identify a topic, find research, and develop the presentation. afikra presentations come in two forms, a long question-driven afikra Feature, and a short afikra FWD with the purpose of sharing something interesting.
