Armenian photography in the second half of the XX century

In the history of photography of the second half of the XX century, the most famous and preserved name is that of Alexander Sahakov, who lived in Tbilisi.

In the history of photography of the second half of the XX century, the most famous and preserved name is that of Alexander Sahakov, who lived in Tbilisi. He is a laureate of many prestigious international prizes and has held more than 120 exhibitions in various countries. He has shooted Svyatoslav Richter, Aram Khachaturian, Bella Akhmadulina, Sergey Paradzhanov, BB King, Jacques Vilar, Maya Plisetskaya, Vladimir Vysotsky, Alla Pugacheva.

The English photographer Ida Kar (Karamyan) studied professional photography in Cairo. Among the portraits created by her, portraits of Somerset Maugham, Leonid Leonov, Dmitry Shostakovich, Marc Chagall, Martiros Saryan, Iris Murdoch, Jean-Paul Sartre, Fidel Castro are the most famous ones. For her creative works Kar has taken more than 10 000 ohotographs. Having received fame in England, Ida Kar photographed all the celebrities of the time who visited the country. In 1956 her first exhibition was held. After visiting Armenia in the late 1950s, Ida Kar made a series of photographs that were later presented at her photo exhibition in East Germany.

Photographer Andranik Kochar had his photo studio in Egyptian city of Alexandria. Moving to Armenia, he continued his activity. Among his works there are portraits of William Saroyan, Martiros Saryan, Gurgen Maari, Ruben Mamulyan and Admiral Ivan Isakov.

Ara Guler is also among world famous Armenian photographers, who was born in Istanbul in 1928. Famous Turkish photojournalist of Armenian origin was nicknamed «The Eye of Istanbul» or «Istanbul photographer». In 1958, the American publishing house «Time-Life» opened its branch in Turkey, and Guler became its first correspondent in the Middle East. Soon he began receiving assignments from other international publications, such as «Paris Match», «Stern» and «London Sunday Times». Among the many photos on which Guler depicts the life of Istanbul, there are portraits of famous people - Winston Churchill, Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Dustin Hoffmann.