PHOTOGRAPHY: TBILISI PHOTO FESTIVAL 2018 CLOSING AT STAMBA HOTEL on September 20th!

Broken Sea

by Russian Georgia female photographers duo Nata Sopromadze & Irina Sadchikova

© Broken Sea by Nata Sopromadze & Irina Sadchikova 

Exhibition - installation

Opening at 18.30, Stamba Hotel.

+++

Salty Taste of The Black Sea 
                   



© Gueorgui Pinkhassov / Magnum Photos. Sokhumi, Abkhazia, Georgia 2009 

by Eric Baudlaire, Jonas Bendiksen/Magnum Photos, Family albums, Maria Gruzdeva, Yuri Kozyrev/NOOR, Justyna Mielnikiewicz/MAPS, Gueorgui Pinkhassov/Magnum Photos, Anna Dziapshipa, Thomas Dworzak/Magnum Photos, Anonymous Polish tourists’ photo archives, documentary movies from 70s, found footage.

Screening with live music accompaniment by Ben Wheeler

at 20.30 Stamba Hotel Amphitheatre.


www.tbilisiphotofestival.com
www.instagram.com/tbilisi_photo_Festival
www.facebook.com/tbilisiphotofestival
 

PHOTOREPORTAGE: Georgia in motion from Magnum Photographers (magnumphotos.com/essays)

(1) Georgian Spring by Gueorgui Pinkhassov
The Argonauts came here in their quest for the Golden Fleece.
It was here that Prometheus was chained to the rocks.
Gods lived here.
Georgian Spring website
Gueorgui Pinkhassov's portfolio

(2) Georgian Spring by Alex Majoli
This work is about the same story of war, same historical phantoms, same questions.
Georgian Spring website
Alex Majoli's portfolio

(3) Georgian Spring by Antoine D'Agata
"And may he return without the help of any man or god"
-Odyssey, Book V, 31-32


(4) Georgian Spring by Alec Soth
"So for my visit, I decided to go looking for the most beautiful woman I could find. Over the course of several weeks, I traveled the entire country.
In a small Northern village I found N., the most beautiful woman in Georgia."
-Alec Soth

(5) Georgian Spring by Thomas Dworzak
"The President was very relaxed with me, and went the extra lenght to take me places where other presidents would not take their photographers: into closed meetings, to lunches and dinners, behind the scenes at the UN..."
-Thomas Dworzak

EXHIBITION: Georgia through the lens of Magnum photographers. By Anna Chichinadze. (georgiatoday.ge)

Georgia through the lens of Magnum photographers
Print version

Starting Sept. 5, Berlin will host the presentation of a newly published book about Georgia.

"Georgian Spring" is the name of a photo album in which 10 Magnum photographers collaborated over their three-month stay in the country. The Culture Ministry initiated the project to “demonstrate Georgia as a European country,” according to Culture Minister Nikoloz Rurua.
Rurua said he gave full freedom to the photographers to decide how to depict Georgia.
“Honesty is the main value of the book,” Rurua told Georgia Today. Indeed, the album is too realistic to serve as a traditional tourist book.
Beautiful postcards depicting typical sightseeing photos of the country are used only as the opening and closing details of the book.
Thomas Dworzak, one of the Magnum photographers who also wrote the forward for “Georgian Springs,” said the book portrays a new, contemporary image of Georgia after the Soviet Union crackdown.
“I think the book will raise awareness of Georgia,” Dworzak told Georgia Today. “European society has stereotypes toward the country, they know nothing about contemporary Georgia, but those old-fashioned pictures and images, churches, funerals, all those photographs have already been photographed and that was biggest attraction for all of us for some time.”
Dworzak said he has a 17-year-old “love-story” with Georgia that started in the early 1990s. He worked in the first Georgian-Abkhazian conflict and lived in Georgia for six years. Today he said he notices numerous changes in the country and thinks the new reality should be delivered to the international community.
Together with Dworzak, Jonas Bendiksen, Antoine D’Agata, Martine Franck, Alex Majoli, Martin Parr, Paolo Pellegrin, Gueorgui Pinkhassov, Mark Power and Alec Soth worked on the 264 page travel journal. Each photographer was responsible for 20 pages of the book, which includes photographs and texts that each photographer wrote about their works and journey within Georgia.
Wendell Steavenson, a journalist and writer, also wrote about her own experience of living and working in Georgia. Chris Boot, a well-known photo publisher, coordinated and organized the project.
Each of the photographers chose their field of interest. New generation, luxury, consumer and gambling, family portraits, construction and industry, minorities and other angles of ordinary Georgian life are showcased in the album together with photos from Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The album is realistic. The pictures capture ugly Soviet blocks and suburbs and women in the markets and streets who do not look happy or comfortable. The modest feasts in ordinary families look too vital among the everyday routine of sadness.
The texts under the photos, which are written in a diary-like manner, express the bare feelings of the photographers. D’agata worked on the Industry and the Economy section of the book and after visiting Kutaisi he wrote about what he saw.
“In Kutaisi, I photographed the renovation of the old town. To be fair, it was not finished and some businesses had moved back in, but the face felt like an enormous film set, strangely soulless and phoney,” he wrote. “Meanwhile on the other side of the town, the municipal market was dominated by huge (and astonishingly beautiful) Soviet frieze, which was crumbling in disrepair.”
President Mikheil Saakashvili is also featured in the book. Dworzak decided to take photographs of the president that are a mix of official visits and some unofficial moments caught in various circumstances, like sitting at the UN assembly listening to world leaders.
“He liked the idea and helped me a lot,” Dworzak said. “He even gave me a chance to enter places I was not allowed. When other photographers stayed behind the closed doors he managed to take me inside.”
The last section of the book is reserved for the Magnum Agency archive. Among other photographs it consists of Robert Capa’s photo essay, which he made during his visit to the Soviet Union and Georgia together with John Steinbeck in 1947. There are also photos by the famous photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Saakashvili was the first to promote the book when he publicly presented it to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden during his visit to Georgia in July.
Soon after its tour through Germany the book will be showcased in Spain and be on sale across the globe. To date, the book has been published in many languages including Georgian, English, Spanish, German and French.

source: georgiatoday.ge




photos by Ralph Hälbig

EXHIBITION: Georgischer Frühling : 10 Magnum Fotografen bereisten Georgien - Reisetagebuch im Kehrer Verlag und Ausstellung in Berlin

Ausstellung "Georgischer Frühling"
5. – 13. September 2009
Uferhallen, Berlin
Uferstrasse 8-11, 13357 Berlin
Öffnungszeiten: 11.00 bis 19.00
www.uferhallen.de

Pressemitteilung - PDF

Auf Einladung des Georgischen Kulturministeriums sind zehn Magnum-Fotografen - Jonas Bendiksen, Antoine D’Agata, Thomas Dworzak, Martine Franck, Alex Majoli, Martin Parr, Paolo Pellegrin, Gueorgui Pinkhassov, MarkPower und Alec Soth aufgebrochen, um das Land zu beschreiben. Jeder der Fotografen ging seinem eigenen Thema nach und brachte ein Tagebuch in Worten und Bildern von seiner Reise mit, dem jeweils 20 Seiten im Buch gewidmet sind.

20 Jahre nach der Unabhängigkeit von der Sowjetunion und nach einer von Krieg und gescheiterter Souveränität bestimmten Dekade startet Georgien ein lebhaftes Comeback. Zwischen der Türkei und Russland am östlichen Rand von Europa gelegen und als eine Hochkultur, die sich bis zu ihrer Besiedlung durch die alten Griechen zurückdatieren lässt, wurde Georgien 1922 der Sowjetunion einverleibt.

Im Jahr 1991 wurde die Unabhängigkeit des Landes wiedererlangt, es folgten jedoch Bürgerkrieg und wirtschaftlicher Zusammenbruch.Trotz anhaltender Spannungen mit Russland hat Georgien im 21. Jahrhundert einen mutigen Neuanfang gewagt und wandelt sich in beachtlichem Tempo zu einem modernen europäischen Staat.

Pinkhassov bereiste die georgische Schwarzmeerküste – einst das Mekka für erholungssuchende Sowjetkader – für seine einzigartigen Aufnahmen von Licht und Texturen und Paolo Pellegrin suchte nach Georgiens Spiritualität.

Mark Power reiste mit seiner 5 x 4 Großformatkamera durch Georgien, fasziniert von den Reibungspunkten zwischen Altem und Neuem. Bendiksen verbrachte die überwiegende Zeit seiner Reise in der Hauptstadt Georgiens: “Ich wollte der neuen Generation von jungen Georgiern begegnen: Diejenigen, die keine Erinnerung an das Leben unter dem sowjetischen System haben, die völlig in der neuen Ära aufgewachsen sind. In Tbilisi sind sie überall zu sehen – man kann sie kaum von ihresgleichen in London, Oslo oder Berlin unterscheiden.

“Thomas Dworzak portraitierte Micheil Saakaschwili, den jüngsten Präsidenten der Welt, der sich gegen Rußland auflehnte und sich dem Westen aufgeschlossen zeigte Martin Parr begegnet auf seiner Georgien-Reise seinen Lieblingsthemen Freizeit und Konsum, fotografiert quietschbunte Spielautomaten am Rande der Stadt. Und natürlich kommt der Fotobuchliebhaber nicht an den Antiquariaten vonTbilisis vorbei, in denen ihm vor allem die Propaganda-Bücher antun.

Den Tagebüchern vorangestellt sind ein Vorwort von Thomas Dworzak, ein Abriss der Geschichte Georgiens und ein Essay von Wendell Steavenson. Ein Kapitel mit den besten Georgien-Fotos aus dem Magnum-Archiv erinnert auch an die Gründungsjahre der Fotoagentur – unter anderem mit Robert Capas Fotoessay von 1947, das entstand, als er mit John Steinbeck die Sowjetunion besuchte. Das Buch beginnt und endet mit einer Serie von Originalpostkarten mit Hauptsehenswürdigkeiten Georgiens.

Georgischer Frühling – Ein Magnum Tagebuch
Autoren: Wendell Steavenson
Kehrer Verlagca. 25 x 29 cm, 256 Seiten
ca. 240 Farbabb., ca. 36 Euro
ISBN 978-3-86828-086-9

Magnum Photos online hat eine Online-Dokumentation produziert, die ab September 2009 zu sehen ist unter www.georgianspring.com.

Quelle: http://www.gosee.de/

AmazonShop: Books, Maps, Videos, Music & Gifts About The Caucasus

PHOTOGRAPHY: Magnum Agency about th Caucasus (magnumphotos.com)

Thomas Dvorzak 2000 (photo left), Dagestan, near the town of Andi on the chechen border. Memorial for a dead Russian soldier

In www.twittercom/southcaucasus I was today the first time a little bit more active. There I connected the twitterfeed from The Agency Magnum. After that I surfed in this amazing space with many photographies. I recommend to descover the world there!

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with photographers like Thomas Dvorzak, Jonas Bendiksen, John Vink, Donovan Wylie, Gueorgui Pinkhassov, Alex Webb, Ian Berry, Carl De Kayzer, Abbas, Peter Marlow, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eve Arnold, Martine Franck, Inge Morath, Erich Lessing, Robert Cappa, Alex Majoli