Antoin Sevruguin who was born in the Russian Embassy in Tehran (1840), and was known as a famous and talented Photographer in Tehran and Tabriz. He was thought to be a Russian by Iranians. He introduced himself as a Russian behind some photographs he took to empower the belief.
Antoin Sevruguin came to Tabriz and later to Tehran late 13th century Hijri Ghamari (early 19th century). He established his photographic studio in Tabriz. Soon he became so famous that he found his way to Mozafar-al-Din shah the crown prince of Qajar dynasty, and became the special photographer of the court. He translated a book about the photographic techniques form “ Liber” the famous French photographer and dedicated the translation to the Mozafar-al-Din shah the crown prince. A manuscript from this translation exists in National Iranian Library with Nastaeligh script under the accession number "A1679"In later chapters of the book I will discuss this matter in the section of Culture and photography literature.It is believed that Mr.Antoin went to Tehran a little before Mozafar-al-Din shah the crown prince, or with him.
In any case he established his photographic studio in Tehran in Ala ud-Dowleh(later Ferdowsi Avenue). Instantly after he started his work he became very famous in Tehran. He accepted the Iranian citizenship and married an Armenian Lady and had some children, among which only a son a daughter lived through adulthood. He was a calm, sequestered, sociable and cheerful man and an artful photographer. His portraits and artistic pictures can be seen in some of Iranian families. He was honored with the diamond medal of “Shir va khorshid Sorkh” (The red sun and lion, a royal honorary medal) from the Iranian government. He also got an honor gold medal from the Brussels exhibition and another form the Paris exhibition in 1900, together with some other medals and honorary notes.
He used the picture of those medals on the back of some pictures and the brochure of his photography studio. Mr. Antoin collected a valuable set of negative glasses of Iranian old pictures. Unfortunately, this collection was destroyed in a riot in Tehran. He helped professor Pop to illustrate his famous book “ A glance at the Iranian art”. He did a lot of work to perform this task. I (as a writer of this book) think many of the pictures taken form the beginning of Mashroteh Movement in Tehran, the sanctuary in the British Embassy, and other events of that period, was done by Mr. Antoin. I myself posses a set of original pictures of Mr. Antoin that shows his mastery and skillfulness in the art of photography, however, it seems that some of them have been printed form the pictures that were taken by other photographers form Iranian scenery. Antoin Sevruguin has numbered the glass negatives and the body of some of the pictures and in some of them he left his Russian script. This artful photographer died in Iran and was buried in Tehran.
Mr.Yahya Zoka ,Tarikh-e Akassi va Akassan Pishgam dar Iran(History of Photography and pioneer photographers in Iran),Tehran,1997
