YEREVAN-TOURINFO-Famous Iranian-Armenian photographer Antoine Khan Sevruguin’s photo exhibition was held in Yerevan’s Blue Mosque on August 31, 2019.
Antoine khan Vasili Sevruguin (Sevrugian) (1851-1933)
Antoine Sevruguin was a photographer in Iran during the reign of the Qajar dynasty (1785–1925). Born into a Russian family of Armenian-Georgian origin in the Russian embassy of Tehran, Iran: Antoine Sevruguin was one of the many children of Vasily Sevryugin and a Georgian Achin Khanoum. Vasily Sevryugin was a Russian diplomat to Tehran.
Many of Antoine’s photographs were taken from 1870-1930. Because Sevruguin spoke Persian as well as other languages, he was capable of communicating to different social strata and tribes from his country Iran. His photos of the royal court, harems, and mosques and other religious monuments were compared to the other Western photographers in Persia. The reigning Shah, Nasir al-Din Shah (reigned from 1846–1896) took a special interest in photography and many royal buildings and events were portrayed by Sevruguin.
Most pictures were taken as a glass negative and printed out as an albumen print. Often a logo with Sevruguin’s name was printed on one side of the picture. Many 19th century tourists misspelled his name, finding it difficult to spell it in Western languages: Sevraguine, Sevrugin, Sevriogin, Segruvian, and Serunian for example. His name was phonetically spelled Sevr-joe-gien.
After his death from a kidney infection Sevruguin’s images resurfaced. He was survived by seven children from his marriage to Louise Gourgenian. His daughter Mary reclaimed a portion of the photos, perhaps through a friendship with Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (reigned 1941–1979). 696 of his negatives survive today.
