We have not been able to clarify the biographical background of this photographer living in Yerevan at the turn of the 20^th century. A number of his works are held in the Yeghishe Charents Literature and Art Museum and the History Museum of Armenia. Some of these were first published by Vahan Kochar in his biographical dictionary Armenian Photographers. It is likely that Hovsep stemmed from the famous Melik-Aghamalyan family of noblemen, and was related to Yerevan’s mayor during the 1910s, Hovhannes Melik-Aghamalyan.

It is evident that Melik-Aghamalyan was a photography amateur and was engaged with the medium on a non-professional basis. Despite this, his scant works are of great importance for the history of Armenian photography of the early 20th century. Some of them were made with the technique of bromoil - one of the most widespread techniques of international pictorialist photography, but practically never used by local Armenian photographers. Besides this, Melik-Aghamalyan's photographs are stamped by an artistic outlook and approach. The soft, graceful tonal passages of his prints reflects the charm of the ordinary everyday environment - an empty pool in the backyard, a corner of the street, solitary horse standing next to a nondescript wall, and so on. The wistful poetry and the graphical quality of these images are clearly linked to the tenets of pictorialist photography with which the photographer must have been closely familiar with. Judging from his portrait of violinist Hovhannes Nalbandyan, Melik-Aghamalyan was also involved in Armenian intellectual circles of the time.

Vigen Galstyan, 2016