F. Hoveyda - P a r i s 1946

Photo Leyckam Eskandar, 61 Rue Didier, TRUdaine 2460

I met Eskandar at my uncle Sardari's studio, boulevard Malsherbes in 1946, a couple of weeks after my arrival in Paris. He was a professional photographer and his studio was in Pigalle. He had been a student of Kamal-ol-Molk, the well known and celebrated Persian painter of the late Qajar period. He was granted a scholarship and came to Paris before World War I  to continue his studies in painting. Instead, he became interested by photography and became a well known one. He specialized in portraits and decided to remain in France. He became a French citizen and continued to paint occasionally landscapes. Uncle Abdol-Hossein Sardari, a talented diplomat/photographer worked at his studio during the occupation of Paris by the Germans. He would send him Iranians as patrons. That's how I had several portraits made by Eskandar in the fourties and early fifties. One final but essential note, uncle Sardari courageously saved many people from the Gestapo and SS during the occupation of France. For more on this hot subject see Sardari's Schindler List.

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