Hovhannes Djeredjian
HOVHANNES DJEREDJIAN
Photographer, artist, and public figure Hovhannes Djeredjian, also known as Shiraz, was born in 1935 in Beirut. He studied at the Sahagian College in the Nor Hadjin Neighborhood of Beirut. Interested in photography he had an opportunity to meet the French prominent archaeologist Maurice Dunand who was impressed by Hovhannes’s photographs. Hovhannes accepted Dunand’s offer to join a French archaeological group to photograph the Roman, Byzantine, and Assyrian artifacts. This cooperation lasted for four years in the southern Tyre and Sidon of Lebanon. In 1962 he first introduced his solo photography exhibition of Lebanon’s picturesque scenery in Dar El Fatwa. In 1964 he represented Lebanon at the Moscow International Photography Festival. In the same year, he visited Armenia and took photos of the country’s natural scenery and historical sites, for the first time printing photos and postcards in color. From then on, he frequented his visits to Armenia to photograph and organize exhibitions thus obtaining the title of the “Photographer of the Armenian people.” After cutting through the red tape, Hovhannes Shiraz accomplished his lifelong desire to travel to his ancestral Homeland – Western Armenia and Cilicia – to photograph historical Armenian sites of Shaddade, Rasul-Ain, Meskene, Margade, Der-ez-Zor, Urfa, Aintab, Dikranagerd, Adana, Sis, Hadjin, Zeitoun, Sassoun, Kharperd, Bitlis, Van, Mush, Bayazet, Ani, Nemrout, Ararat and many more. Shiraz was the first to display Western Armenia and Cilicia in colorful slides. During his second visit to Western Armenia in 1969, he explored the Sassoun region in depth, which earned him the title of the “Photographer of Armenian History.” His contribution to documenting the Western Armenian cultural heritage s of great valuable importance or all generations. Shiraz had always stayed in the mainstream of Lebanese events; he captured the marches and demonstrations on the 50th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. The events of the civil war in Lebanon had not remained unnoticed by Shiraz’s photo camera which earned him the name of the “Reconstruction Committee” photographer. Photography for Shiraz was a means of expressing his great love and devotion to his Homeland. Around 70 slides with descriptions depicting the historical Homeland were shown to students at Armenian schools on 24 April. From 1964-2007 Shiraz had around 50 solo exhibitions in various cities, including, Yerevan, Etchmiadzin, Sdepanakerd, Shoushi, Hadrout, Athens, Beirut, Tripoli, Antelias, Zahlé, Anjar, Damascus, Nicosia, London, Marseille, Nice, Los Angeles, Texas, San Francisco, Dubai, Sharjah, and many more. Apart from photography, Hovhanes Shiraz had also been committed to the public and cultural life of his community. He was a member of the Social Democratic Hunchakan Party, the founder and Chairman of the Dekhrouhi Student and Youth Association (1952), and a member of the SDHP Central Committee. Hovhanes Shiraz and Sona Keshishian have two children, Maral and Daron, and three grandchildren: Arin, Patil, Nareg. Hovhanes Shiraz died in 2015 in Los Angeles.