Reimagining the Past
Not every story left behind a photograph. Reimagining the Past uses family memories, archival research, historical references, and AI-generated imagery to visualize moments that were never photographed—or whose images have been lost to time. These reconstructions are not presented as historical photographs, but as carefully imagined windows into stories we know happened and wish we could have seen.
Avanes Ohanesian's 130-th Birthday
On the 130th anniversary of the birth of Avanes Ovanesian (Oganesyan), we honor the memory of this Iranian filmmaker of Armenian descent—a man who played a pivotal role in shaping Iranian cinema. By creating Abi and Rabi (1930)—Iran’s first feature-length film—and subsequently establishing the country’s first film acting school, he undertook a venture whose future few at the time could have envisioned: laying the foundation for a native Iranian film industry.
For the Sarvarian brothers, however, Avanes’s story holds a more familiar chapter: a mutually beneficial artistic and commercial collaboration at the Sarvarian Brothers’ graphic design studio on Tehran’s Lalehzar Street.
It was in this setting, starting in the mid-1930s, that Ovhanesian began collaborating with Moushegh and Napoleon Sarvarian to produce animated advertisements—shorts screened in cinemas prior to the main feature. The two brothers applied the skills they had acquired during their studies in Russia to breathe life into Ohanian’s designs and scripts. Moushegh possessed exceptional talent for lettering and typography in various languages, while Napoleon contributed his own unique color palette and artistic vision to the compositions. It was through this process that Ohanian’s advertisements made their way to the silver screen.
Although these advertisements may seem insignificant when compared to the milestone of Iran’s first feature film, they nonetheless constitute a part of the history of visual art and illustration in Iran. Thanks to famous films, there were artists at work, clients placing orders, and experiences that helped this emerging art of animated advertising gradually find its footing.
Today, as we mark Ohanian’s 130th birthday, we cast our minds back to the Sarvarian Brothers’ graphic studio on Laleh-Zar Street—nearly a century ago—and imagine what those three men might have been saying and doing on an autumn afternoon in Tehran.
Note: The photograph is for illustrative purposes; the actual moment of this collaboration was never captured on film.
