Carlo Bukmejian's photography center, centrally located on Rue de Roses in Smyrna, operated until the early 1900's. Prior to opening his own private business in 1895, Bukmekjian partnered with Jean Zilpochian with whom he had a joint studio between 1893-95.(1) Both studios attended to the photographic needs of Smyrna's middle and upper middle classes. Bukmekyan's carte de visite and cabinet portraits are formulaic and do not go beyond the factual recording of physical appearance and social standing. They are historically important visual evidence of the cultivated and distinctly ‘modern’ lifestyle of Smyrna's Armenian community at the end of the 19th century.

Vigen Galstyan, 2018