Kh. Papazian's pavilion was one of the many Armenian photography studiosconcentrated in Cairo in the 1930s and 1940s. Judging by the large number of photographs produced by this shop, Papazian’s venture was a fairly successful one. Here, the representatives of Cairo’s middle classes ordered individual, family and bridal portraits. They are mostly standard-sized carte-postales which could be mailed as ready-made photo-postcards. Papazian's photography has little in terms of artistic ambition. The photographer’s primary aim was to create an elegant and dignified image for his clientele without resorting to exaggerated lighting and compositional schemes. These portraits reveal Cairo's the cosmopolitan lifestyle of city’s multicultural inhabitants and provide fascinating insights into their rapidly changing lifestyle and fashion. Details regarding the photographer’s biography have not been discovered.

Vigen Galstyan, 2016