PHOTOESSAY: Tbilisi In The Key Of Love. By Dina Oganova and Zaza Bourassa via @postpravda (postpravdamagazine.com)

(postpravdamagazine.com) Note: Dina and I both agreed that we needed to speak about Tbilisi as a person instead of an object. We just love Tbilisi too much.

Tbilisi is in the key of love. Tbilisi Loves You even if it does not connect you to any wi-fi. It is where Gio can’t get out of bed without Yana, and Sandro does not leave without saying goodbye. It plays How Deep Is Your Love in every café. It liberally reminds you that if you invest your affections, then all its love is yours. Tbilisi is in the key of love and it is your second summer.

The beauty of Tbilisi’s love does not locate itself in postcards. The impossibility of Tbilisi’s charm is that it is equally the charisma of summer as it is the security of winter. The dreamlike quality that the judas tree leafs brush against your feet in the narrow streets of Mtatsminda. The certainty that every night will come to a conclusion with a new friend. The Balearic summer mornings with awakenings of “Matsoni, matsoni!” The gentle reminder from the pockmarked buildings of Sololaki that though you’ve aged, your shortcomings just add to your allure. Perversely, Didube in a post-modern fashion. Tbilisi’s love is always one part European and another part Zaza.

The love that Tbilisi confesses does not weigh heavily on your heart. It manoeuvres subtly into your heart. It wraps its arms around your neck, as you sit on the edge of your bed, while whispering into your ear. It is the last touch of a finger trailing down your back before both of you realize tomorrow’s work is only three hours away. Its soft breathing eases you into a gentle sleep. It wakes you on Sunday afternoons with kisses. It is your fall jacket and your first day of spring. It is the opposing opinion you want to hear. Tbilisi exists as just a small reminder that everything that is perfect about you is already there. You just need to be more you and you just need to allow Tbilisi to be Tbilisi.

For whatever Tbilisi’s love is, all the wealth of Instagram images, poorly worded love letters, and songs by Revaz Laghidze won’t do justice to this clumsy kisser but gentle hand holder’s feelings. You just need to take your chance on yourself and put aside those bachelor kisses. But like marshrutka rides and every successive chacha shot, love is a story of chance. However, summer is here and Tbilisi is looking to steal your kiss.


twitter: twitter.com/postpravda


more links:
dikarka.ge
facebook.com/DIKARKA
instagram.com/dikarka
newyorker.com/dina oganovas faces of Georgia
loeildelaphotographie.com/dina oganova i am Georgia


postpravdamagazine.com/author/zaza bourassa

PHOTOGRAPHY: Tbilisoba. By the Georgian Dina Oganova (georgianphotographers.com)

(georgianphotographers.com) Tbilisoba is a holiday,celebrating in the capital of Georgia-Tbilisi, it’s also call “city’s day”. It was first held in 1979 and has since become an established tradition.

Tbilisoba. Photo by Dina Oganova

More photos by Dina Oganova are here in georgianphotographers.com

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Submit your portfolio to KOLGA AWARD (kolga.ge)

(kolga.ge) CALL FOR ENTRIES!!!
Submit your portfolio to KOLGA AWARD at www.kolga.ge and visit Tbilisi in May. The best photos of the year will be exhibited in Tbilisi, Georgia on May 12 . Prize fund: 6 000 US $.
Newcomer award 500 EUR !
Call closes at March 20, 2016.
More info: kolga.ge

KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO 2016

"KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO" will be opened 12^th  of May. Within the framework of "KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO" week, along with Kolga Award exhibition, the capital city of Georgia, Tbilisi will host various international and local exhibitions featuring both historically significant images and photographic works depicting various positions in contemporary photography. For “KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO 2016” visitors will have a chance to get familiar with the works of the world-renowned photographic artists and view the various international photo exhibitions.

A new award was added to the photo contest this year: Kolga Newcomer Photo Award. This award will be given to a young photographer under the age of 25, whose photo series will be chosen among best series in the following categories: Reportage, Documentary Series, Conceptual Photo Project. Kolga Newcomer Photo Award 2016 is founded by a co-organizer of the photo week, Teona Gogichaishvili and her German colleagues, art patron Max Schön (well-known German expert in renewable energy technologies, president of Deutsche Club of Rome) and established German photographers – Dirk Gebhardt and Theodor Barth. This award should be established and given to the best photo series of young participants of the photo contest. The winner of this category will receive 500 Euros. The aim of the Kolga Newcomer Photo Award is to facilitate the development of young photographers and paving their own path in the world of photography.

Under the framework of "KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO" will host 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.

KOLGA AWARD 2016

Within the framework of the KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO, the biggest and the most prestigious photo contest in Georgia will be held. The jury members will pick out the best photo projects and reveal the winners in each category. The main goal of the AWARD is to link international photography to Georgia and to local photography. Announcement of the Photo Award worldwide – in Europe as well as in the USA – intends to foster its international position.

This year’s categories include:

1. Documentary Series
2. Reportage
3. Conceptual Photo Project
4. One Shot 
5. Mobile Photo

The KOLGA AWARD prize fund will be 6 000 USD. The sum will be equally divided between the winners in the first four categories. The winners of these categories will get 1500-1500 USD each. As for the Mobile Photo category (with sub-nominations: one shot and photo series) the winners will get a special prize: iPhone.

A new award was added to the photo contest this year: Kolga Newcomer Photo Award. This award will be given to a young photographer under the age of 25, whose photo series will be chosen among best series in the following categories: Reportage, Documentary Series, Conceptual Photo Project. This award should be established and given to the best photo series of young participants of the photo contest. The winner of this category will receive 500 Euros. The aim of the Kolga Newcomer Photo Award is to facilitate the development of young photographers and paving their own path in the world of photography.

Should you have any additional questions, please contact us at: contest@kolga.ge
facebook.com
facebook.com/KOLGA-TBILISI-PHOTO
 

VIDEO: Meeting Georgian Photographer Dina Oganova (newscafe.ge)

(newscafe.ge) Dina Oganova, Georgian photographer was our guest in Focus of the Week, produced by GIPA Student Media.

Her future plans, news about her hand made book - "My Place" in the talk show with Hasmik Hayrapetyan and Sona Simonyan.

Anchor: Hasmik Hayrapetyan

Producer: Sona Simonyan

PHOTO BOOTH: Dina Oganova’s Faces of Georgia. Posted by Thea Traff (newyorker.com)

(newyorker.com) At a time when many journalists in post-Soviet states have turned their attention to the encroaching threat of Russia, the photographer Dina Oganova has continued to document life in her home country of Georgia. Inspired by the Georgian photographer Yuri Mechitov, Oganova began studying photography in Tbilisi, the nation’s capital. Oganova prefers her subjects to be strangers, and she told me that most Georgian people readily agree to be photographed. “They don’t understand that a photographer is a profession,” she says. “Everyone loves to see how I make the photos.”

Oganova, who is twenty-seven, has seen a lot of change in Georgia. “I was a child when the first war started here,” she told me, referring to the 1992–93 war in Abkhazia. “Of course, I didn’t understand during that period. We called it a civil war, but now I understand that it was war with Russia. It’s crazy, but I can’t go to Abkhazia because I have a Georgian passport. When we had the five days of war with Russia, in 2008, we lost South Ossetia. No one said that it was a war; everyone said that it was a conflict. But I can’t say that. When a lot of people die, when you lose your friends, it’s not just a conflict. It’s a war.”

Above is a selection from “I am Georgia,” an ongoing project that Oganova began in 2007.

All photographs by Dina Oganova. more here >>>

dikarka.ge/i-am-georgia

EXHIBITION: "My Place". By Dina Oganova (DIKARKA) in Tbilisi (Dikarka.ge)

Friday 13,2013 , 19:00, Old Cinema "Apollo" Agmashenebeli Ave. 135

more: www.Dikarka.ge


Karavella from DIKARKA on Vimeo.


Karavella

In 1992 there was a civil war in Georgia,It lasted 13 months. Georgia has lost its historical part – Abkhazia... The war is over, but the conflict exists till now. Abkhazia continues to fight for independence.

There are 250 000 refugees in Georgia after this conflict. The governmental bodies gave them shelter in different buildings like hotels, hospitals, schools ...

One of these settlements in Tbilisi is Student’s City” - 14 stores building without elevator also they have problems with electricity and water supply.

The most of refugees are still unemployed, and their monthly income is only 28 GEL. Some of families have additional income and get 33 GEL from government.

But the main problem is that they never now when they have to leave their new "homes" again. Abkhazia is the most painful topic for Georgians, but everyone here believes that we will go to our homes back again...

P.s.
"Karavella" it was the old ship in Abkhazia. I was asking people,what they remember and miss most of all except their homes and some of them were saying about it. 

more here: georgianphotographers.com/dina oganova

PHOTOGRAPHY: "My Place" by Dina Oganova in PHOTOGRAPHY Magazine Issue 4 (hashtagphotographymagazine.com)

look here: hashtagphotographymagazine.com

EXHIBITION: WE ARE GEORGIA - Photo exhibition at Slussen (stockholmtoday.se)

(stockholmtoday.se) Photographers: Levan Kherkheulidze, Dina Oganova, Archil Kikodze. Besik Darchia, Shota Tsiklauri, Leli Blagonrarova och Natela Grigalashvili

© Archil Kikodze

The true story about current Georgia.

Open:

tuesday – friday 12-18

sunday – sunday 12-16

Where: Galleri Kontrast, Hornsgatan 8, T-Slussen

When: 30 october 2012 – Sunday 4 november 2012

Please support this site by sharing us or our sponsors

AWARD: Documentary Photography Project: Winners Announced (eurasianet.org)

(eurasianet.org) OSF’s Documentary Photography Project recently announced the winners of the 2012 Production Grant for photographers from Central Asia, the South Caucasus, Afghanistan, Mongolia, and Pakistan.

Inna Mkhitaryan’s project looks at the underlying economic, social, and psychological factors that give rise to human trafficking in Armenia and seeks to challenge the stigma against trafficking victims who are often blamed for their own plight.

Arthur Lumen Gevorgyan’s project on the human costs of landslides in Armenia addresses government negligence toward people who live in landslide zones. To help policy makers plan for and prevent disasters in the future, Gevorgyan will provide visual documentation detailing how people who live in landslide zones are affected.

photo: Sitara Ibrahimova

Sitara Ibrahimova’s project will call attention to the practice of selective abortions of girl fetuses in Azerbaijan, which reflects a prevalence of gender inequality and discrimination against girls and women that persists in much of the region.

Elyor Nematov’s project focuses on the severe living and working conditions that migrant laborers from Kyrgyzstan face when they seek better economic opportunities in Russia.

Dina Oganova’s project on Roma communities in Georgia will portray the everyday life of Roma women with the goal of dispelling stereotypes about, and intolerance for, the Roma community.

Daro Sulakauri’s study of the Samtske-Javakheti region of Georgia will look at both the ethnic Armenian and Georgian communities of this historically isolated, tense area.

Darya Komleva’s project seeks to challenge stereotypes of people with disabilities in Kazakhstan by profiling the daily lives of children with disabilities and their families, as well as their experiences with alternative education programs.

Fraidoon Poya will address the rampant problem of suicide through self-immolation in Afghanistan. An issue that is well known but considered taboo, this project will allow for a more complete understanding of why women attempt suicide in this region and what happens to them after so as to prompt much-needed dialogue and change.

Fardin Waezi’s project will portray the resilience of Afghan civilians after decades of war by providing a unique view into the varied experiences of people in Afghanistan.

For more on the winners, other ongoing and archive photo projects, and Moving Walls, visit: the OSF Documentary Photography Project Web site.

More to the project: oseweb.org

EXHIBITION: Dikarka’s “I am Georgia” in Chernigov, Ukraine. Photography by Dina Oganova (georgianphotographers.com)

(georgianphotographers.com) Dikarka’s “I am Georgia” will be exhibited at Chernigov Opening in Ukraine from 25th of August until 14th of September. 

Georgia is a small country. It is located on the border of Europe and Asia on the coast of Black sea. Formerly part of the Soviet Union, it borders Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan And Armenia.

The population of the whole country is around 4 Million. one third of which  lives  in the capital city, Tbilisi ...

Georgia is my favourite topic to shoot . Not because I was born and brought up here, but because everything is special here – people, streets, architecture, traditions ...

I began this story in 2007 and I think It will never finish because Georgia is inexhaustible ...

To see the whole album click the picture below; 

more on her homepage: www.dikarka.ge