Aram Alban Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1883 - d. 1961

Aram Alban (1883 - 1961) - Aram Alban was born on July 30, 1883 in Constantinople, Turkey. His parents were Armenian, but Alban was raised and educated in Constantinople and Cairo. He left school to work as the assistant to a photographer in Cairo. After this apprenticeship, Alban went first to Milan (he apparently admired Italian portraitist Gustavo Bonaventura) and then to Brussels, where he took portraits. From about 1922 to 1933, he maintained studios in Brussels and Cairo. About 1925, Alban moved to Paris. His first Paris studio address was at 46 rue de Ponthieu. He became associated with Georges Saad, which apparently has caused some confusion about his first name. The George Eastman House database lists Aram as 'Georges' Alban. The studio focused on fashion, portraits and publicity, but also made modernist nudes. Alban exhibited at the XXVe Salon International D'Art Photographique de Paris 1930, Societe Francaise de Photographie and at the 1932 Bruxelles' Internationale de la Photographie. He had several of his photographs published in the art photography magazines of the period, including the influential Photographie magazine and Paris-Magazine. About 1933, he turned over the Paris studio, which was now at 233 Faubourg Saint-Honoré, over to Hrand Minassian, another Turkish associate, and returned to Cairo to run his studio there. He died in Cairo on March 4, 1961. His work is in the collections of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Canada. His work was also published in "50 Ans de Photographie de Presse", which was published by the French Bibliotheque Historique in 1990.