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CONTENTS
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PORTRAIT
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Sculptor Tengiz Sepiashvili
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GUEST
CONCEPTUAL
Photographer, Artist, Director James Higginson
Qeta Gvinepadzes Photo Project “July, 1950”
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2.0
FASHION
Gudrat Ibragimov
Designer Lasha Devdariani
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KOLGA TBILISI Photo Contest
NEWBIE Mananiko Kobakhidze
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THEATRE
GUEST
"Women of Troy" Director Data Tavadze
Photographer Teona Gogichaishvili
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PHOTOEXPERIMENT
PHOTO REPORTAGE
Guram Muradov Photo Project “SKIN“
April-May
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EDITOR IN CHIEF Guram Muradov EDITOR Lasha Kavtaradze CREATIVE DIRECTOR Qeta Gvinepadze PHOTOEDITOR Eana Korbezashvili CONTRIBUTORS Nata Avaliani Tako Poladashvili ENGLISH TRANSLATION AND EDITING Irakli Malania Elene Kvernadze Elene Ramishvili GUESTS James Higginson Kato Kalatozishvili Teona Gogichaishvili Nato Kakhidze Tengiz Sepiashvili Salome Maisashvili Data Tavadze Magda Lebanidze Mananiko Kobakhidze Keta Satirishvili Lasha Devdariani Mariam Kekelia Lasha Tsertsvadze Giorgi Qarqishvili
www.photoessay.ge to@photoessay.ge
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Š PHOTOESSAY Georgian Online Magazine 2014 4
COVER LASHA TSERTSVADZE
Photographer Guram Muradov
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EDITOR’S LETTER 11 YEARS It had been 11 years since photography is my honny and profession. During this time perios, I conducted different kind of experiments. Sometimes the result was surprisingly good, but sometimes I thought that I shouldn’t have waisted time for this. But that’s the nature of experiment- sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Despite this fact, I have never stopped experimenting. “Photography without borders!”- Motto number one. FIRST DSLR There is a stage in my life, when my first came, e.called “soap holder” complains (DSLR cam.). It starts talking, walking and running away. “Take pictures of everything you see!”- Motto number two. FIRST FILM “Zenit” and anguishly colleted 10 laris for Black and White tape. I take the last shot and I’m running to disclose the tape. Out of 24 picture, only 5 came out good. I print them with pride and think about what else can I do. I started to remember school period, embittered youth, how they were scratching pictures of their former loved ones. In order to do this, you had to put a picture in the water for a minute. I haven’t thought for a long time and put the picture in the water. I took a needle and raped my own self portrait. I scratched the background, draw some clouds, mustaches and glasses. As a result I got 9X13 size paper, which I immediately threw in a trash bin. “Measure it 7 times and then do it once”- Motto number three. EXPERIMENT The topic which is really hard to cover, especially for artist. CITY The place for experiment. WE’RE BACK WITH TOPIC- “EXPERIMENT IN THE CITY.” GURAM MURADOV 6
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EDITOR’S LETTER
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Experiment is a main source of any kind of progress.Sometimes thoughtless, sometimes even completely deliberate and premeditated. Although it’s sounds really philosophical for an Editor’s column, but this is the first thing that comes to my mind, when I look at new issue of “Photoessay”. And the fact that for most of us it’s difficult to realize that conditionality is stronger in our lifes, rather than monolithic ideas and conditions. This ideas and conditions looks much more conventional in urban areas, where more people live, clocks tick faster, where we see diversity in every step we take. So that’s why we decided to dedicate new issue of our magazine to the places and people, which frequently makes us to think about conditionlaity of our lives. In order to achieve this they often take experimental approaches. Some of there people are guests of “Photoessay”, including Georgian photographer Teona Gochiashvili with experimental photo project, Berlin based American film director, artist and photographer James Higginson with his new film and photos. Section 2.0, New-York based Azeri photographer Gudrat Ibrahimov with his urban and experimental photos. You will meet beginner photographer Mananiko Kobakhidze, who will try with her photo collages to show you that hipster aren’t going to “extinct”. Guram Muradov will makes us to think about exsitence and layers in out brain by his two new projects: “Skin” and “Parallel life” shooted in New York. Qeta Gvinepadze experimented her own abilities and made conceptual photos “July, 1950”. Eana Korbezashvili met Tengiz Sepiashvili and will introduce his kinetic sculptures. In addition, you’ll get answer to the question, “how to talk about mourning?”, from director Data Tavadze. You’ll hear interesting story of how this experimental play was created. It took me forever to describe our nexe issue, so now I let you to look inside and think with us about how can we use environment around us to experiment and does ubran environment leaves us space for interpretations. Contact us! to@photoessay.ge Lasha Kavtaradze
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PORTRAIT
Tengiz Sepiashvili SCULPTOR “Art for the bigger space”
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“Four years ago I started making kinetic sculptures. I have finishes about a hundred different projects. Everything I create comes from my own desire. This is a happiness for me.“ 12
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"I clearly remeber the first sculpture that I made, but I can’t recall the second or the third one. Every time i create something, my mind is already thinking about the next installation. I just make a simple sketch. Sometimes I can’t sleep at night, because my bain is still thiking about the sculptures. I get up and sketch them. The next day, I make them real, spatial figures." 14
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“Every sculpture has its own character. Some of them are real. Every istallation tells a special story. Social-political actions makes me to create installations. I can’t live separated from the reality.” 16
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“I don’t use the subject for just the subject matter. Every detail has an underlyting message of my own addiction. For me it’s just really important to convery things that I can’t express with words.” 18
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“Constant research and progress are main features of my character. I don’t know where to stop. I can’t fell how years pass by. Every time I send my sculptures to the exibition, I close that page of my life. Something that was before isn’t enough for me now.” 20
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Photographer: Eana Korbezashvili; Interview: Tako Poladashvili
“I created my own world and large spaces make me feel comfortable. My work is made for a bigger spaces.“ 23
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Juri Podgorsky
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GUEST
James Higginson Photographer, Artist, Director. 26
My first introduction to photography was in 1963. My father bought me my first camera and said he wanted to take me to the New York World’s Fair. I was so very excited and with this event began my love of photography. At the fair, I was deeply imprinted with the idea of world travel and experiencing different cultures. My artistic development was initiated and I have been shooting since that time. I’m considered more a fine artist that uses photography, rather than a schooled photographer. For me the camera gives a visual voice to my inner impressions, my curiosity of human nature, and my views of cultural differences. I teach at a university here in Berlin and also at my studio for film and photography, AVB-LAB. I have had Georgian students over the years and two of them in particular spoke highly about your country, how exciting and how beautiful it is. They said they believed I would love it, and that I must come and bring my style of photography to Georgia. So I took them up on the invitations and I visited. That began my love affair with Georgia. On my first visit I found the culture, people, and food very welcoming, very beautiful, as well as interesting. My natural curiosity was picked and that moved me forward. On that visit I was also introduced to the black shields. On meeting them, I chose to shoot a scene for a developing film project entitled, “A Road to Batumi”. This film will follow a story line about relationships between people from different generations, between traditional and contemporary aspects. I shot a sequence as theygathered around a fire in one of the tradi-
tional building in the Georgian National Museum. They sing one of the beautiful old traditional Georgian songs. This dream like scene of singing brotherhood is combined with fight sequences. I have been coming back and forth from Berlin-Tbilisi for a few years now, shooting different parts for that film and also shooting a photo portrait series of the guys. After all this time, I feel I really have become a part of them. At this present moment, I am working on another Georgian project, entitled “devout”. It is a documentary film with the Orthodox monks of the Urbnisi Eparchy as it’s subject. It is about their lives, rituals, faith and community. I’ll return in July of this year to complete the filming. Experimentation is absolutely positively important for me as an artist and as a person. I refuse to put myself into one tight box, I prefer to be open and approach my projects in an open way. Being open, without expectations, I am able to create with fluidity and innovation. I creatively draw on my intuition to drive the work forward. This began in late 90’s when I was attending graduate school. I was experimenting with combined media: with theater, lighting, painting, sculpture, and performance in particular. I was also producing and creating sound design with composers for my artworks. In 2000’s my visual artworks moved a little more toward an area I would call cinematic narration, telling stories through visual pictures. I was looking at cultural taboos but at the same time I was experimenting with perceptions, combining positives and negatives into the final prints. For one series in particular, I created mirrored environments 27
filled with mirrored elements. These images metaphorically represented our perceptions: what is the future, what is the past and how they are joined; how they are reflected in both our memories and in our recognitions and our recollections. Since 2009 I’ve been using myriad experimental elements in my film work. I have sent you some images from “WILLFUL BLINDNESS“, my first feature length film. It was entirely based on experimentation. Urban spaces are interesting for me when I consider contrasting man in spaces. Creating a context to discuss the contrasts between the two. In my own work urban spaces become locations or backdrops to support my subjects. I believe at this present moment in history we are at the dawn of something absolutely fantastic and huge. Something that will be as nothing that has been in the past. We are on this knife-edge between the traditional past ruled by ana28
logue processes and the future ruled by the digital, including 3D and virtual realities. What I am currently fascinated by most and I find the most interesting is investigating our perceptions of realities both virtual and realistic. I project these ideas to the students as they move forward. My advise for all my students is formed in questions, what do you like?, what do you love?, what are you interested in?, what makes you curious?, what will inspire you to want to work all day long? The subject matter is less important than the drive toward image creation. Whether that final image is a photo, a film, a video, virtual, installation, 2D, or 3D is also not as important as capturing the inspired mental picture in your mind and translating that into a final work. Also this creative process takes precedence over what apparatus is used to capture the image, whether it’s a still camera, whether it’s a video camera or whether you are capturing it in a dimension that we can’t imagine yet. I don’t
rate one apparatus over another. I’m much more into the dialog of finding ways to capturing what is on the inside: the fantastic, the dream, or the feeling, and transferring these into something that is going to communicate something to another person. You begin with an inner dialog and you externalize this into a physical artistic entity. We have a responsibility as artists to move forward and push the media, but at the same time there’s a part of me that loves and respects the tradition of the task. In my work I often include historical references. I enjoy seeing how I might take the reference and develop it into something that I might not even have previously imagined. I like to surprise myself. My personal definition of success has changed over the years. I initially believed that success was grounded in goals defined by money and power. This belief perhaps came from an older, more traditional generation. But it’s not always only money, it’s not always fame, and it is not always power that can de-
fine success. They are tools that can be utilized. As I have matured, my view has changed. Success is now the journey, the creative journey forward. A journey filled with change, growth, curiosity and collaboration. If I can continue for the rest of my life creating day after day, making new work and fulfilling my artistic creative spirit then I can definitely say I have had a successful life. And that’s what I would inspire the next generation students to do as well. For the student it is important to find mentors that you can trust and that you believe in. The mentors help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, they help you get into action and move you toward a personally authentic future. This is what I do through the work at my studio. I love being a mentor and I love working to help each individual person find his or her own personal vision of success and get them on a path that will make that vision a reality.
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Group recollection, 2003 30
Mirror recollection, 2004 31
Behold, 2011 32
Behold, 2011 33
WILLFUL BLINDNESS, 2013 The latest completed project by James Higginson WILLFUL BLINDNESS is a really extraordinary film piece with deep psychological layers. The screenplay is based on the relationships of three people, a gunshot victim, a woman, and her daughter. WILLFUL BLINDNESS is an experimental art film where Higginson deploys his tools as a fine artist and investigates the most compelling aspects of the camera vision. With powerful and moving scenes the director places us, and our minds, in a place where we have to reach and explore our darkest fears. The film is entirely based on experimentation with stunning visual interpretation that refers to our contemporary society. It questions our everyday choices. We are pleased to share with you some stills from the film sent directly by the director James Higginson. 34
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CONCEPTUAL
July, 1950 (Experiment - First film) To my grandfather, who I didn’t knew, To my grandmother, Who I don’t remember… In 1949 they met in Tbilisi, as my mother tells me, they loved each other very much. When I read the letter, I agreed. They spent 22 years together. I.K. was a really famous surgeon, so they moved to a different places a lot. They were raising their only child and taking her everywhere, even to hunting and difficult surgeries: during this period of time a nurse was standing next to 8 year old girl, standing on a stool, and watching her to not get sick. Then there was an accident- a car accident in 1973… I know their faces from the photos, the story from the letters and detailspersonal belonging, which I always keep with me. When I wear her long floral dress people really like it. Today nobody wears this style, and fabric is different too… It all makes me even closer to the relationship, which almost never existed. I start looking at details from the beginning, create scenes. At this time I start imagining and “closet smell” comes to me. QETA GVINEPADZE
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Gudrat Ibragimov Architect, Photographer Photography is one of the main and most important part of my work. For various reasons I had to move to US, New York, but I hope in the near future I’ll return back to Azerbaijan, Baku. I am an architect. For me as an artist photography compensates my self-expression. Today, as almost everyone, the virtual space is very important for me. However it doesn’t play a major role in terms of motivation and my love of photography. I have a quite a lot of photos that I don’t post on my web page, and to be told in the future I’m not planning either. But this, of course doesn’t mean that I’ll stop sharing my work to a wider audience. As for the New York- it’s full of surprises. The city is very diverse, and I can safely call it source of inspiration. From time to time even a simple walk can help you to find something new. It won’t be a surprise to say that New York still amazes me. I really don’t like to talk about details of my work. I think there’s no point of describing my work and working proccess in details. In my photography any technical nuance has secondary importance, therefore it’s not a priority. 49
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Tako Poladashvili Journalist “FROM 9 TILL 6”
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FROM 9 TILL 6 YOUR LETTER In late April, in this city, only miners lived, and only one, the wooden window hotel worked. Hotel food doesn’t taste good, bad isn’t comfortable at all and from the cracked walls uninvited guests are coming. If you are lucky and the weather is sunny please walk to the beach from sixth to ninth port. Yeah, most importantly, hold map in a right direction. I will be there soon!” MY LETTER You never came. It was raining in the city just like in the books. It was a long and heavy rain. I’m writting with banal phrases, because if all of this isn’t a dream then I’m writting a letter and I’m supposed to be honest and write tangled sentences. On monday evening train arrived. It was supposed to arrive the day after, but this doesn’t mean that I’m waitting for you. I love to wonder around alone, well you know it. As soon as I opened the door of the hotel you mention earlier, by the way it wasn’t hard to find it, men who I thought was a tourist like me threw a key to me. “Is it crowded?” I even thought that you were lying. You know that I really hate staying in strange cities. “No, it’s just us”, he answered me and I was on my to my room, when he stopped me and said: “Don’t you want a map?” I grabbed a map. It was filthy. There were two big dirty spots on the map. It was filled with pictures. At first I was confused, but then I got angry. You’ll be surprised, but the room was just like the one in our childhood. I thought that our parents gave this hotel all the old stuff that we had at home. Nothing else happened during that night. I didn’t take my shoes off, I just slept with them. One the next day, Tuesday, when I was sopposed to me meet you on the railway station, I decided to walk around the city. You told me that fear isn’t capable of killing a person. Nor living in a strange city can kill you. If this wasn’t the truth, than would you be dead a long time ago? But still, I didn’t like this idea. When I looked at the map, I felt disgust. I started to think about how many people touched this paper. But I still took map with me and I was trying to personalize all the creatures that have ever touch this map and was wondering around the city just like me. One-two. There are two different ways to the train station. One passes through underground. You better know the road and miners well. The second one is from port. And there is third one for the vehicles. But let’s forget it. Lets take the road through port. I opened the map. I remembered everything. From six till nine. I opened the map and I was happy! There was two red circles around 9 and 6. At first I thought that this was your map. I took a closer look and wanted to smell it. I sait that I’m banal and romantic in this letter. But I changed my mind.”
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YOUR LETTER “Do you remember that day? When during the first year of our school I came to your class and asked you out? That time we called restrooms to the toilets. When you stood up from the last desk in the class and came close to me, you were smilling. I asked you to come with me to the restroom. I asked you to stand outside the door and don’t let anyone to come inside, while I as watching seven different cabins in there. I was really confused and had no idea how people decided which one to choose and how boys can love girls peeing in this awful place. During that day I didn’t pee myself, but after this I was running home everyday after school. I don’t know why I’m writting this to you, but I’m pretty sure that when you see this port and filthy water, you’ll remember the same thing. I haven’t seen you for a long time, so I hope that you forgive me. I think we are different from each other and that’s because you went to that restroom after me. “ MY LETTER “You’re an awful person. It’s just I’m not wrriting stuff like this anymore. There was a terrible smell at port. How can you lay a wooden planks on the sea. From palce to plce the water is leaking. At some places your leg gets stuck. At some places it’s just broken. The sea was black. Before I crossed the three partition, I stoped twice. Fortunately I was wearing coat. I covered my nose with my coat. And the most amazing thing happened, I got lost. Why they don’t nimber the partitions? Which century is it? How can you just pictures and have no signs? The ninth line is stony beach, then comes coniferous shoreline, the sixth one is underground, the shortest way. Why does both of this ways go to the hotel? By the way, you as an expert in antiquities and horror would liked this fact: how can you explain the fact that the cup which I was drinking coffee in the morning had your initials? We did this in kindergarden, so everybody would have their own cup. “ YOUR LETTER “Most importantly, on Tuesdays, there is no train coming. There are two possibilities, eather you wait till Thursday for me, or you are leaving. If you loose you way, I know that you’ll leave. If you choose the right way, use the only map and you’ll not fight with me, I will knock on you door as I did on our first year at school.” MY LETTER “After writting the previous paragraph, I rested for a while and looked at train schedule. We haven’t seen each other for a half century. Maybe you are the man sitting in the waitting room, what happened, what’ll happen. Maybe you were that women with red hat. I’m walking in the city and looking for you. But the city has no signs. The signs like in our city. Easy to guess, memorized signs. I will honestly tell you: if I’ll wait for you till Thursday, I’ll no longer confuse 9 with 6. But I’m not waitting for you. If this isn’t a dream, then tell me why this map has my initials?” TAKO POLADASHVILI 57
FASHION
Lasha Devdariani Designer
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“ABOUT OUT DOPPELGANGERS AND GHOSTS” Here everything is really simple. What else could it mean to see a man all dressed in white, standing in the mud and looking nowhere, rather than our doppelgangers and ghosts. When I think about eating cheap food in Italy, cold enviroment of France and constant motion of England, my experiments are born in the city with no name. It’s really hard to determine it’s location and latitude. It’s just in the world. Loneliness is the beginning of everything for me. Staying alone with myself and with city, where my, yours and everybody else’s shadows, ghosts and memories are living. 59
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Photographer: Qeta Gvinepadze' Interview: Tako Poladashvili
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KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO CONTEST
After 13 years of successful track record of running annual Photo Contest, the recent highlight was the extension of “KOLGA AWARD” into “KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO”. From 2012, within the framework of “KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO” week, along with Kolga Award exhibition, the capital city of Georgia, Tbilisi has hosted various international and local exhibitions featuring both historically significant images and photographic works depicting various positions in contemporary photography. For “KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO 2014” visitors will have a chance to get familiar with the works of the world-renowned photographic artists and view the various international photo exhibitions that will be announced soon. Within the framework of “KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO” will be presented the selected works by one of the Georgian photographers, who will become the winner of this year’s traditional Alexander Roinashvili Prize for a special contribution to the development of Georgian photography. Under the framework of “KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO 2014”, in cooperation with Gallery Lichtblick and the support of the Ministry of Culture, Georgia and British Council in Georgia “KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO” will offer workshops, seminars, discussions and portfolio reviews free of charge to underline our philosophy to support the further promotion of art of photography as one of the new media forms among Georgians and to advance them in their development. Famous photo experts, curators, tutors, art critics from all over the world will deliver workshops, lectures and portfolio reviews. Workshops will be announced soon and the registration will start online at www.kolga.ge.
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WOMEN IN BLACK One shot: Fausto Podavini
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SUBURBIA (PARIS SUBURBS) 68
Best Reprotage: Arnau Bach
In November 2005, Zyed Benna and Bouna Traore, 15 and 17 years old, respectively, die after being electrocuted by an electric generator while hiding from police in their neighborhood, Clichy Sous Bois, in the north of Paris. Their friends and neighbors get angry quickly. A pitched battle against police flares up, rapidly spreading to the 42 kilometers of suburbs that surround the French capital. Shortly all the other suburbs of the most important French cities would also burn. The blurred and decontextualized images of looted shops, cars in flames and uncontrollable violence triggered the start of this report. One year later I decided to go there to try to better understand a reality that was only being shown when the outbreaks of violence were attractive enough to get onto the media agenda. In 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2012 I went to department 93 in Paris, specifically to Seine St. Denis, one of Paris’s largest suburbs. Lack of jobs and the virtual absence of facilities and space for leisure means young people spend hours on the streets. Groups of friends, without any occupation, kill time on the corners of the peculiar and labyrinthine urban structure of their neighborhoods. They pay close attention to their image and show their clothes’ brand. The presence of high-cylinder motorcycles and the latest generation mobile phones are surprising in a place where people are condemned to lives of desperate poverty. This flashy lifestyle is paid for by drug trafficking, an activity that becomes relatively easy in neighborhoods where a police presence is practically anecdotal. Meanwhile, most families live on public benefits. This report seeks to reflect the way of life on the street for these gangs of the Paris Suburbs: the gregarious lives of their members and their love for hip-hop culture, together with scenes of daily violence, which are a constant presence in their everyday lives. 69
IMMERSED IN LIVING WATER 70
Best Conceptual photoproject: Wendy Sacks
This series is a cathartic endeavor. It started when I became handicapped and I could no longer bathe my small children from outside of the tub so I got in the tub with them to make it easier. I started to photograph them in water. When I looked through the camera lens, I remembered the children I had photographed for teaching purposes when I was an Emergency Medicine Physician. Some of the children I had treated had just been born, some were sick and some even died on my watch. But now I had time to celebrate and mourn because I had stopped working. I branch out to photograph children other than my own. These images are about life, death, love, mourning, and celebration. My wish is for viewers to explore their own spiritual awareness as they take their time understanding the emotional and fluid nature and layers of the series: Immersed in Living Water 71
NO AGUA, NO VIDA 72
Best Documentary Photo: John Trotter
Since 2001, I have been photographing the consequences of the sweeping human alteration of the Colorado River, in the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico. The Colorado, I soon learned, was greatly reduced from what it once was and no longer makes its ancient rendezvous with the Sea of Cortez, between the Baja California peninsula and the Mexican mainland. Forces north of the border had other destinations planned for the river’s water, and in 1922 divided its annual flow between seven U.S. states and Mexico. They built an extensive network of dams, stilling much of the once roiling river and creating the foundation on which the Southwestern United States has been built. But as it has turned out, the foundation of everything, the premise of 1922, was based more on wishful thinking than fact and up to 25% more water has been promised to the river’s users than actually exists. 73
DEATH OF A RIVER 74
Documentary Photo: Giulio Di Sturco
Climate change is visibly melting the glaciers up in the Himalayas, as the sea level rises and threatens to submerge the Sundarbans. Salination of the land is posing irreversible damage to fragile ecology along the river. Dams are being constructed to the detriment of the river and the communities that live on its banks. The constant polluting of the waters from domestic, industrial, chemical and biological waste makes disease and death a constant and often casual reminder of our fragility. I have been challenged spiritually, emotionally and mentally on so many levels by these waters. Every time I return to the Ganges, I have to force myself to use the physicality of the work as a way to push through and continue the internal dialogue I have with the world around me. India stirs many emotions within me, imperfect and conflicted my experiences have been beautiful and transient. The Ganges is a goddess; moody and fierce at times she holds the human beast within her grasp. I have heard so many warnings of ecological disasters and I have witnessed man’s unforgiving greed for survival as more new cities cut through this holy river. As the water dances around my fingers, teasing me playfully, I stand within her and surrender. I wonder how long mortals can test the gods. 75
GEOCELL MOBILE PHOTO
MARCO SPINNER Opening the Gates to Space
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SIMONA BONANNO The Kiss and the Film
LINN PHYLLIS SEEGER Untitled
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Mananiko KobakhiZe Newbie Photographer “COLORFUL CARDIGAN, SKINNY JEANS, “CONVERSE SHOES”
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Photographer: Eana Korbezashvili; Interview: Nata Avaliani
NEWBIE
My project is about hipsters and how I perceive them.
do they live? Were do they go? Why do they walk?
Most of time hipsters are associated with particular style of clothing. Colored cardigans, skinny jeans, “converse shoes”- he or she is for sure hipster. This could be wrong impression- it all depends on our perception. Basically, we don’t look carefully what kind of person is he/she, and most of the time it turns out that we are dealing with just inattentive human beings.
One of the employees of New York times was writing: I’m a hipster and it’s impossible not to be hipster, I ride a bike, I wear big, round sunglasses and a bow tie. There is no chance that you aren’t a hipster, but still you have a label tagged on your back. This isn’t a sub-culture anymore, but market is trying to adjust to demandanyone can wear like a hipster.
I’m part of hipster community- like vintage subjects, a newly established bands, colorful clothes- it makes my life to be happy. Maybe you aren’t a hipster, but people still think of you as one of them. Hipster isn’t fighting for a concrete idea. They like trees, little flowers, nice Shops are full of hipster clothing, you houses, nice clothes… I tried to show all can’t even buy a jeans with huge of this through accession of photos and pockets. If you told a person during the drawings. Photos show empty places, baroque period, why they were wearflowers, trees, graphite elements- what ing wigs, they probably would laugh they really love. The drawings show out at you. It’s similar today, hipster style is nature that doesn’t care about anyreally comfy. thing. Since I was a little child, I wanted to do I got this idea from my friends, because something good to a society, just like they think I’m a hipster, who loves vin- Walt Disney did. There are too many tage subjects. negative things around us, so I try to bring positiveness out of my pictures. I would have been interesting to look Even a silly picture can make a person for these people. Who are they? Where to laugh. 79
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THEATRE
Data Tavadze Director
“WOMEN OF TROY“
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women from different regions in 90s. While reading these interviews we found out that the great war units the most of the stories. In other words, it’s really hard to find a Georgian who doesn’t know what the war is.
HOW TO SPEAK ABOUT THE MOURNING?
These stories haven’t been adapted- as it often happens. It was a straight forward talk with jargon language and stylistic errors- Live text- as we often make mistakes while talking, continuous long sentences.
During the performance, the language that we use in somewhere between litLast year Royal District Theater stages erary and spoken Georgian. This is turn, the play “Women of Troy”, which could makes it difficult to establish a genuine be called experimental. Since then, the play has been played on the stage many dialogue. They use words that are almost new to me, unusual and peculiar to a times, although audience’s attention, particular region. We decided to take adalmost a year after the premier, has not faded. Photoessay talked Data Tavadze, vantage of this live performance and put it under the headline, which is Euripides the director of “Women of Troy”. legendary, Antique, written in the 4th century BC play - “Women of Troy”. Data Tavadze: Recently, the women’s fund “Tasso” published two volumes of stories- interviews with Georgian women. The first part covers almost the whole 20th century, while the second part presents interviews with
“Women of Troy” tells the story of the Trojan War and the women from the royal family captured by the Greeks. This is a kind of monologue, continuous mourning. Five women complain, tattle about the past, then they leave the place where they are imprisones and the main character, Queen Hekuba, stays alone.” Five women is a five story, which presents women involved in the war. The play also tells us how these women lose their sons, brothers, husbands and it also includes violent episodes of rape and domestic violence. Euripides covers all this points. When started to look for these stories inde-
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pendently (“Tasso” wasn’t involved in this process). We wanted five stories of things that women can’t avoid during the war, so that’s why we follow Euripides construction. We realized that the play must be about the mourning, but for me the main question was how to speak about the mourning. The play reaches its climax with the question- “how can you talk about the mourning?” On the next part of the story we tried to answer this question in any way, find out the options how it happens, how can you talk about it. The work that me and Dato Gabunia (playwright) - did was rather unusual, as it was the first time for us working with the actual collage of text and just putting them on the sheets. The text isn’t written, there is nothing trumped up, except for a few small sentences, which are bridges between different stories. In the other cases, they were either our stories- mine, Dato’s, actor’s personal stories related to the war- or the stories that we heard in IDP camps. Or from our acquaintances, who have gone though similar things in Abkhazia .
“Women of Troy”. We started with absolutely nothing, we had no idea of what final product would be. It was really essential for us to develop a certain strategy of work. We knew what we were aiming at, but it was hard to think of the ways to achieve it. We went through the consultation process with psychologists, which really helped us during the interviews with women. Me personally had to work out some sort of system- how to shape the text, how to communicate with actors and involve them in this process. In order to achieve this, we created special exercises, which helped us to make some associations and use our deep instincts.
I took out from the text any geographical area reference, so during the play you can’t hear Russians or Russia, Abkhazians or Georgians, and Ossetians. There is only one- Troy, reviled Greeks. It was not our choice, but the Greeks were in such context. When we started working on this project, we just knew the name of the project103
tain, mourning song, which is a way for a women to curse the spring, ask him to stop, stop the revival of flowers, cease nature from waking up, because these things don’t match her condition right now. When her child is dead, why should everything become alive.
During the rehearsals we had a day dedicated to the civil war. My experiment was to find out in today’s society is civil war a memoir of their memory. Today we spent 6 hours to stage a one of the longest, continuous scene in the play. Working process also involved girls to go out in streets and ask questions about this topic to strangers. After getting an answer to this question, they would run to the stage and present it to us. This was continuous 6 hours of new stories, we wrote down the text, which in my opinion was very interesting, poetic phrases. So we decided to leave them as part of the script. In one very slow going scene, the actors occasionally say some phrases, which are all collected from that day. “Women of Troy” begins with a song with amazing lyrics. This is a song from moun-
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This is also the idea of ancient tragedy: a confirmation with the fact that you can’t cope with something. In “Women of Troy”, character of Euripides tragedy always fights with people impossible to defeat, so this fight is absurd. As Oedipus can’t cope with and triumph over fate, the same controversy exists when women or men try to overcome the horrible reality of war. When a person shares with you a very intimate, secret story, you can’t play with it and use it for your own success. That’s why I didn’t want to come out with the story similar to those shown on TV. Very often they use the stories of the orphan children, women, victims or war to increase the number of viewers. I want clearly admit that this wasn’t our goal. Therefore, during the whole performance we told stories with a smile. The actor never mentions a fact that he or she is a character. They always try to reach the point where they are part of their character. We are just telling stories about women, and in this regard, we are part of the audience. We aren’t them, we have never seen the facts, which we are telling, we haven’t experienced things, which they did. We are like regular viewer enjoying the performance. We are just bringing these stories to a bigger audience and tell them the fact that most of the time these are women who tend to be forgotten.
For the play we don’t change the light. We use bird twitter as a background sound. Consequently, the whole performance takes place in spring-summer period, nature wakes up and starts blooming. (Minimal decoration- only 5 chairs and a table. Many flowers). All these women say that they are pacifists. They are people who, even though lost everything, don’t even have the slightest desire to take a revenge for their loss. All the women I spoke with said that they don’t care about all the things they lost and don’t want to talk about war at all. Main thing that they lost, as they say, is never coming back. This is the ending of the play- story of a women who says- “even if you gave me the golden towers, I still don’t want to hear about the war.”
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“I can’t remember, if I actually saw dead bodies in the streets, or it was just my imagination…”
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“How to speak about the mourning?”
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“We spent one winter there, I just turned thirteen… We didn’t know where the drug store was, we just got to this village.”
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“I just remember one scene, I remember red spot, on a blue shirt.�
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Photographer: Guram Muradov; Interview: Nata Avaliani 114
“When lights went out, we were standing in the dark and looking at sky from the window. Bullets were leaving red lines in the air and it was really extraordinary to see it. Red lines were crossing each other and it was like spider’s web.”
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GUEST
Teona Gogichaishvili Photographer
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POEMS WITHOUT WORDS In the museum in London there is a special section for prerrafaelitas. They opposed the perfection of the Renaissance, they began working with the real models. Ophelia is the most famouse work of prerrafaelitas. There was an actual person lying in the water. At that time it was very modern. Then, everyone followed this suit. Prerrafaelitas once said: we want to create a world where the light shines better than in reality, in which there is a coutry which seems real... This is poems without words. The project was finished in 2009, this represents totally different side of me. It’s printed on the pages of old german book and drawn in wax. I opposed the idea, that size determines the quality. Photos are delicate, small and unique: it depends on how full is a sheet with colors. It gets different color when goes through oil or tea. I get a totally different result if l put the picture in oil or tea for a day. Everything becomes so real- you have to be careful, because it can change a color.
EXPERIMENTS When I take photos, I don’t think of them as photos- this is just a first step and the second part is what will come out of these photos. It’s very intuative. I like experimentation a lot. I like experimenting, because they can’t be replicated and it’s sharply individual. After printing, I color the picture with oil and tea solution, Different brands leave different colors. I prefer to work with my hands. I can’t concentarate on my work in a big city, because of impressions abot buildings and people around me. My working enviroment is fields of yellow flowers. I need peace and quite, rather than a curiouse people around me. For example, recently I visited Lisi Lake. I have a lot of memories connectes with this place. This kind of enviroment helps me to come out of my shell and create something different. I really want to have a driver (I don’t have a drivers license), I would travel a lot and stop at places where I think good pictures can be taken.
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PHOTO EXPERIMENT
SKIN Home where we live from birth and nobody can take it away from us. Home in which we fell comfortable, and only belongs to us. Society trying to penetrate our home. A society what can’t fit in thir own home. Soceity. Home. Other and me. Complex. Tradition. Me and my own skin. Skin... GURAM MURADOV 139
DROWNING AT MY OWN HOME. 140
I GET NAKED. 141
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I’M A WOMAN, LIVING IN A MEN’S SKIN. 143
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OUR HOMES HAVE THE SAME SKELETON. 145
I WANT SPRING. 146
I WANT TO LOVE. 147
I HAVE MY OWN TRADITIONS. 148
I HAVE MY OWN COMPLEXES. 149
PARALLEL LIFE Another regular day started. At first glance, nothing has changed since yesterday. When I look outside the window I’m really surprised to see all these unusally tall blocks of buildings, because I’m accostumed to the view of TV tower from my window in Tbilisi. On my right side I see the “Chrysler” building. And I remeber that I’m in New York, the city that truly never sleeps! I dress up, leave the hotel, and prepare for my new adventures. I’m covering long distances, but don’t feel tired at all. I’m walking and it’s just me who thinks that I’m walking slowly. Well I was doing everything on the same pace as the city did. When I looked at the map I saw that I walked Manhattan in about 15 minutes. I look around the city, I look at people, cars, feel the rythm. I cross the rode and start looking in the shop windows. I’m confuesed. I Just crossed this road?! I look up and see the sign “One way” is upside down- New York lives with two different lives, one is real, a second one is paralle- just like mirror.” GURAM MURADOV 150
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PHOTO REPORTAGE
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Lelo Ball. Shukhuti Village, Guria. April 20, 2014. Photo: Eana Korbezashvili
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APRIL 9. Tbilisi, Georgia. April 9, 2014. Photo: Eana Korbezashvili
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Rally concert “We Choose Europe”. Europe Square, Tbilisi. April 13, 2014 Photo: Guram Muradov
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International Workers’ Day. Tbilisi. May 1, 2014 Photo: Eana Korbezashvili
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Tbilisi Fashion Week. May 6-10, Tbilisi. Photo: Eana Korbezashvili
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Khaishi village. Svaneti, Georgia. March 2014. Photo: Eana Korbezashvili
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