Only one photograph – currently in the Pierre Gigord collection of the Getty Research Institute – testifies about the existence of this studio in the Scutari district of Istanbul. This album photograph taken at the beginning of the 1900s, pictures a group of elderly male patients of the St. Saviour National Armenian Hospital. It is difficult to understand today for what specific use Tchamlitchian’s image was intended for. Simultaneously of documentary-reportage quality it could have also served for purely personal, memorial purposes. Nevertheless, this fairly straightforward portrait taken in the courtyard of the hospital is a vivid document that testifies to the multi-layered uses and complete integration of photography in all socio-cultural spheres of Ottoman-Armenian life at the threshold of the 20th century.

Vigen Galstyan, 2018