Gabriel Khatisyan is known as a pedagogue and a botanist. Upon receiving a multifaceted education at Moscow’s Lazarian Seminary (1845-47) and the Dorpat (now Tartu) University (1848-51), he returned to Tiflis, where he taught at the Nersisyan School (1852-55), and his own private educational center (1852-58), which was attended by many major future figures of Armenian culture. Khatisyan was in correspondence and was friends with the first Armenian novelist Khachatur Abovyan and other important actors of 19^th century Armenian Enlightenment movement. His field of professional interests revolved around science, especially chemistry and astronomy. It is a little known fact that during his studies in Moscow or Dorpat, he also got acquainted with the still photographic techniques, in particular the calotype method invented and popularised by Henry Fox Talbot. Khatisyan’s only currently known photograph, which depicts the Ejmiatsin Mother See and its nearby lake, is made in a somewhat different technique. This salt print, probably created in the 1850s, is the only preserved specimen of its kind in the history of Armenian photography so far known to us. It is also one of the earliest photographs made by an Armenian photographer.

The small-sized ‘Ejmiatsin Monastery’ represents this famous architectural monument in the form of a ‘veduta’ watercolour. Oval-shaped, it has a classical, pyramidal composition with the Ejmiatsin Cathedral’s cupola positioned in the center. Enveloped in a misty atmosphere, the monument’s surroundings are devoid of any signs of modern life and the structure appears to be frozen in time. It is akin to a desert mirage – an impression underscored by the church’s vague reflection in the lake. Hence, the architectural complex emerges as a reverie rising from the folds of history, which is quite typical of the overall vision of ‘antiquarian’ photography prevalent in this early stage of the medium’s development.

Vigen Galstyan, 2016