Kurkdjian Surabaya Come to Java 1922-23 Dutch East Indies Photography

Come to Java 1922-23 by Official Tourist Bureau Weltevreden Java see for a slideshow on Flickr ... photography by Kurkdjian Surabaya

Onnes (or Ohannes) Kurkdjian, born in 1851, was an Armenian photographer who was based in Yerevan for part of the 19th century. Kurkdjian later emigrated from Armenia. He lived in Singapore for a short period - spending just over two months there in 1885 and working for another Armenian photographer. He then moved to the port town of Surabaya on the island of Java, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), where he continued his profession as a photographer. He eventually owned a photographic "atelier" studio in Surabaya, with more than thirty photographers and darkroom assistants, producing photographs that are now highly prized for their topographical and anthropological content. The studio's photographs were also reproduced on picture postcards. He died in Surabaya in 1903 (some accounts say 1901, or 1904). After his death the company was taken over by the pharmaceutical import company "Helmig". Read more ...



See also Beatiful Java ...