[IRAQ.],
ELDORADO STUDIO. &
[KOUYOUMDJIAN (Ovaness).]
Portfolio of photographs of Iraqi views and people.
STRIKING LARGE PHOTOGRAPHS OF IRAQ, FROM AN ARMENIAN STUDIO
[IRAQ.],
ELDORADO STUDIO. &
[KOUYOUMDJIAN (Ovaness).]
Portfolio of photographs of Iraqi views and people.
A remarkably beautiful group of photographs from the Eldorado studio of Baghdad. Run by Ovaness Kouyoumdjian, Eldorado was among the most prominent Armenian-owned photographic studios in the Iraqi capital, prospering well into the 1950s. The present group of large silver-gelatin prints is a rare survival, as the studio mostly produced real photo postcards and smaller format prints.
The photographs include: a potter presenting freshly-thrown earthenware jugs; mounted desert policemen; the Ctesiphon Arch (Taq Kasra); a worker gathering dates high up in a Basra palm; the golden domes and minarets of Al-Kadhimiya Mosque; two stunning images of Baghdad’s famous Souk al-Safafeer; men transporting goods in a kuphar (the crates somewhat surprisingly purporting to contain scotch whisky).
Cf. Vartan Melkonian, An Historical Glimpse of the Armenians in Iraq, Basra, The Times Press, 1957, p.12.
