Kegham Djeghalian

Kegham Avedis Garabet Djeghalian ( and ; 1915–1981) was an Armenian-Palestinian photographer. He opened the first photography studio in Gaza in 1944, where he became known for his photographs documenting daily life and political events over four decades.

Biography Djeghalian was born in Anatolia. As a toddler, he fled to Syria, disguised as a girl with his mother and uncle as survivors of the Armenian Genocide, having lost most of his family members. However, his mother died, and Djeghalian was placed in an orphanage in Lebanon. In his teens, he moved to Palestine, where he lived in Jerusalem and Jaffa and trained in photography as an apprentice.

Upon marrying Zevart Nakashian in 1944, Djeghalian relocated to Gaza, settling in Al-Zaytoun, and opened the city's first photography studio named Photo Kegham on Omar Mokhtar Street. Local families would come to Photo Kegham to have their portraits taken, or hire Djeghalian to photograph events such as weddings and parties. Djeghalian is well remembered among Gazan Palestinians, both in Gaza and the diaspora. The following year, an Arabic-language documentary from Al Jazeera titled Gaza's First Photographer: Kegham Djeghalian, directed by Marwa Jabara Tibi, won the Bronze Prize at the Jordan Arab Media Festival.

Djeghalian's grandson Kegham Djeghalian Jr., an artist, creative director, and academic, discovered a box of Djeghalian Sr's negatives at his father's apartment in 2018 and took them back to Paris to develop them. In 2021, he curated an exhibition titled Photo Kegham of Gaza: Unboxing for Cairo Photo Week at the Rawabet Art Space. He emphasised the theme of "a disrupted history", a frustration shared by Palestinians and Armenians. One of the burdens of going through this work, he said, is the potential for what remained of it in Gaza to be lost.

The photographs are being displayed at the Photographers' Gallery in London in 2024 in partnership with the Barakat Trust and the Armenian Institute, as well as the University of Amsterdam's Spui25. Djeghalian Jr gave a talk in conversation with Rachel Dedman at the former and Özge Calafato and Karène Sanchez Summerer at the latter. Photo Kegham was replicated for the 2025 Sharjah Biennal.