Hadjolian Frères opened their photographic studio in Varna, Bulgaria in 1892. Like many other Armenian photographers of the time, the brothers most probably emigrated to Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire, probably driven by the anti-Armenian sentiments of Sultan Abdül Hamid’s administration or in search of fresh entrepreneurial opportunities. The establishment initially carried only Sarkis Hadjolian's name (18??-1923) and was changed to 'Hadjolian Frères' in the mid 1890s. Judging from the enormous output of their studio, it was a very successful and busy establishment. In order to help out the two elder brothers, their younger sibling, Artin, joined the business some years later.(1) In the 1900s, Artin would branch out on his own with a separate studio called 'Apollon'. 

The studio provided services in all types of portrait photography. Richly decorated and technically well-equiped, the premises of ‘Hadjolian Frères’ made it possible to create diverse situations, compositions and atmospheres that could satisfy the different tastes of the many customers. Nevertheless, the pavilion portraits made the Hadjolians stuck very close to the common protocols of turn of 20^thcentury commercial studio portraiture. Sarkis Hadjolian’s son, Aram, would make a more serious claim for creative uses of photography in later years, becoming one of the founding figures of ‘art’ photography in Bulgaria between the 1920s and 30s. 

Passed from one generation to the next, the Hadjolian studio operated continuously for nearly three decades.

1) Yanka Kyurkchiev’s National Association of Photographic Academy, ‘Armenskata Sleda v Bolgarskata Fotografiya’ [‘Armenian Trace in Bulgarian Photography’, in Bulgarian], Europe 2001, issue 3, 2001, http://euro2001.net/index.shtml/issues/3_2001/index.shtml?page=photoatelie&file=photoatelie/photoatelie_74.html

Vigen Galstyan, 2016