According to an advertisement published in a Baku newspaper, Ashkhen Aristakova's studio opened on Baku's Gubernskaya street in 1898. It offered ‘all kinds of photographic services’, including hand-colouring with watercolours and, more surprisingly, printing on materials that ranged from silk to marble. As mentioned in this newspaper notice, the operator of the studio was made Ms Aristakova herself. In terms of chronology, this was one of the very first businesses in Transcaucasia run by a woman photographer. This was an unusual phenomenon both in the Armenian and in the Caucasian reality, where such a public work was considered unacceptable or at best, unfit for a woman. In any case, Aristakova's skilful but formulaic portraits do not differ from the production of any other photography studio of the time.

Vigen Galstyan, 2016