In tandem with photographers such as Luarsabov, Nazaryants and Samaryants, Grigory (Gevorg) Shahverdov founded his photography studio in Central Asia, in the late 1890s and operated it until the establishment of the Soviet Union. No biographical information about Shahverdov has reached us, and the few of his photographs that have, tell little about the overall characters of this photographer's practice and tastes. His studio backstamp indicates that Shahverdov’s Ashgabat pavilion was a branch of the ‘Odessa artistic photo-studio’, although no trace of an enterprise bearing Shahverdov’s name in Odessa has been found.

The photographer's identifiable output is made up of ordinary cabinet portraits depicting representatives of Russian and military families stationed in Ashgabat, as well as some of the Armenian merchants working in this city. According to Shahverdov's seal, he also photographed ‘scenes and types’, though no such works have come to light. Despite its modest aspirations, this photographer's output is a further testament about the Armenians’ active involvement in the cultural modernization of Central Asian political and economic centers.

Vigen Galstyan, 2018