Annie Karakaian was born Oct. 1, 1911, in Constantinople, Turkey, the daughter of Kevork and Armavanie Tateosian Sarafian. She and her family escaped the
Armenian Genocide and moved to the United States in 1922, where their
names are listed at Ellis Island.

She graduated from Detroit Michigan city school, and following the
Depression the family returned to New York City. At the age of 60, she
attended Queens College, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts,
graduating cum laude. Afterwards she taught art in New York and practiced with experimental photography and printmaking. She is one of the very few diasporan Armenian women artists to have practiced photography and is the only one in this regard to have created a large series of photograms.