Belian was one of the first Armenian photographers to be based in Alexandria. His practice, judging from the few surviving photographs made between the 1890-1900s, did not endure for a long period. No bibliographical or archival traces pertaining to the photographer photographs have been discovered. Although Belian promoted himself as a proponent of ‘artistic photography’ on his back-stamps, his known portraits have only very basic qualities and are far from the aesthetic and technical mastery of his Armenian colleagues, such as Gabriel Lekegian and Gevorg Abdullah, who were also based in Egypt around the same time.

Vigen Galstyan, 2016