He opened his first exhibition prior to the Hamidian massacres where Armenians in Istanbul were massacred en masse. As a result of the unfavorable political conditions of the period, his work failed to arouse interest and support. Due to the massacres against Armenians, Atamian sought refuge in Paris in 1897. In Paris he illustrated nearly 150 books, including novels by such famous writers as Anatole France, Guy de Maupassant, Henri Bordeaux, and René Bazin and the French translation of B. Litton's "The Last Days of Pompei until World War I".