Hovhannes Harutyunyan, the nephew of Gabriel Khanoyan- one of the most famous photographers from Yerevan- started his professional career in 1939 by apprenticing with his uncle. After returning from the Great Patriotic War, Harutyunyan resumed working with Khanoyan, who handed over his entire studio to Harutyunyan a decade later, in the mid 1950s. According to details provided by Vahan Kochar's biographical dictionary, for many years Hovhannes continued to print his photographs under Khanoyan’s name, which was one of the most immediately recognizable ‘brands’ of studio photography in Armenia:(1) The studio’s name changed only at the end of the 1960s, becoming ‘Foto Onnik’. Harutyunyan’s wife – the daughter of Tblissian photographer Hayk Pakhchanyan - Meline Bakhchinyan has assisted her husband since their marriage in 1956. Her specialty was in retouching and hand-colouring of black and white portraits, which were in great demand even after the widespread use of colour process in the 1970s.(2)

The composers Arno Babajanyan, Aram Khachaturyan, actress Varduhi Varderesyan, filmmaker Frunze Dovlatyan, among others, had their portraits taken by Harutyunyan, who has photographed almost all cultural luminaries in Armenia between the 1950s and 1980s. In these portraits, the photographer remained undeterredly committed to the somewhat theatrical, ‘iconocratic’ style of his uncle, Gabriel Khanoyan.

After Harutyunyan’s death, the studio was taken over by his son, Armenak, who continues to operate it to this day.

1) Vahan Kochar, Hay Lusankarichner[Armenian Photographers], self-published, 2007, p.195

2) Lena Gevorgyan, ‘The Ghost of the Photo-Arch’, www.imyerevan.com, April 2, 2013 https://imyerevan.com/hy/culture/view/1660

Vigen Galstyan, 2016