here and there

TED talk in Georgia

2012-01-15T10:44:00.000-08:00

TED talk in Georgia will happen for the first time here - on February 11- I will be one of the speakers-I feel honored and I am nervous:) .My plan is to talk something along the lines: Creating your life on your own terms...

One of best work on s/c Arab Spring

2011-09-15T07:14:00.000-07:00

and one of few news photographers which makes me want me to remain one:)

Yuri Kozyrev | On Revolution Road from NOOR on Vimeo.

Inspiring

2011-09-03T09:36:00.000-07:00

more on photographers

2011-08-01T10:49:00.000-07:00

NYT story by Ellen Barry

Photographers arrested in Georgia

2011-07-12T09:46:00.000-07:00

Today demonstration in front of Georgia's Parliament -to make a case of arrested photographers open to public !!!

"......Georgian Public Defender, Giorgi Tugushi, stopped short of calling law enforcement agencies to fully declassify case against arrested photojournalists and said that investigators should decide about classification of separate evidence rather than imposing blanket restriction on the entire case....."

Great Blog!

2011-04-14T01:21:00.000-07:00

By Time Magazine - truly one of my .."favorite destination for photography" .

Lynsey Addario: ‘It’s What I Do’/ from NYT Lens Blog

2011-03-31T09:37:00.000-07:00

Lynsey Addario talking about her work as a photographer- smart and very much down to earth -same as her work.

Workshop in Amsterdam

2011-03-14T05:26:00.000-07:00

For those who might be interested in taking part:

Next woman story

2011-03-10T01:23:00.000-08:00

on Armenian woman and how they live when they husbands leave to work in Russia-and sometimes never come back-work in progress- those images done for Eurasianet.org with (great to work with ) writer-Gayane Abrahamyan.

And some more on city woman from my project

2011-03-10T01:21:00.000-08:00

The Saturday Profile in NYT

2011-03-10T01:16:00.000-08:00

...of Shorena Begashvili- which I photographed for my project on Georgian Woman-in very interesting :) article by Ellen Barry : Defying Sexual Mores in Conservative Georgia.

Exhibition in Poland

2011-03-10T01:09:00.000-08:00

Exibition of my " Shared Sorrows , Divided Lines " long time project as well as of my new work from series on women .Took place in November 2010 in Gdansk, Poland at Nadbaltyckie Centrum Culture to open the Conference dedicated to Caucasus.

Baku / Stranger than Paradise

2010-11-07T06:38:00.000-08:00

Here my last fast assignment- travel story for NYT from Baku- had "Stranger than Paradise", by Jarmusch/ on my mind -setting the mood:)

Women in Georgia

2010-10-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

In 2009/2010 I completed another story focusing on Women in Georgia- titled : "What will People Say?". It was planned as a series of portraits , landscapes and ambience shots taken in the places where those women live. I recorded interviews with them and now I am still processing that material. Here are some of the photographs taken outside the city. Soon I will post some work from the "city part" of the story. I will continue working on similar stories in other countries.

I was able to complete that work with support of OSI Documentary Photography Project .I was one of the 2009 winners of Production Grant offered to Photographers from Central Asia, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Armenia / Turkey / border story

2010-10-03T08:22:00.000-07:00

Already for a while I am working with both digital camera and medium format film-cameras.

Below are few photos from the story I did on Armenia-Turkey Border , border which almost reopened in 2009.

Book -Shared Sorrows, Divided Lines

2010-10-02T03:17:00.000-07:00

For last three years in my free time (and whenever I felt an inspiration) I was editing my work from last 8 years into the Book Project. Finally I came up with third version-which is something I feel connected to and represents the mood I wanted this book to have.

When I left Poland in 2002 to Georgia I gave myself 10 years to publish a book from that project-which means I should do it soon...by 2012- or earlier if possible.

Book dummy already get some recognition. It was chosen by Marc Prust to be shown at FotoGrafia Festival 2010 in Rome, where he is a curator of an exhibition dedicated to unpublished Photography Books.

Book also received honorable mention at Blurb Photography Book Now Competition.

New York Times

2010-10-02T02:24:00.002-07:00

And yes- one more older text on NYT Lens.Blogs page.We met with James Estrin in Perpignan in 2009 where we talked-or he took an interview . It was great to hear questions beyond usual: "why do you live in Georgia and do you like Georgian food ?".

I started to work for NYT in 2005 from Caucasus and I would consider that moment breaking point of my carrier.It was great not only because NYT photo-editors were spoiling me constantly-they trusted my vision and never demanded "hand-shake" shoots:) .On that occasion I also learn how to use an FTP to send photos.

(And yes I do like Georgian food.)

2010-10-02T02:24:00.001-07:00

Canon Female Photojournalist Prize and Perpignan

2010-10-02T02:08:00.000-07:00

In 2009 I received Canon Female Photojournalist Prize for my long time project ( now already a book dummy) about South Caucasus. You can see an interview from last year made by Pascal Briard during Visa Pour l'Image Festival in Perpignan.

This year I also had an exhibition where I showed that project after working for a year to complet it.It was great to be there as a guest of the festival:)

Migrants Assimilate, But Preserve Ethnic Identities / Turkey

2010-10-02T01:33:00.000-07:00

my story from Eurasianet.org

Back home, their differences may run strong, but within Turkey, ethnic groups from the Caucasus often find that they have more in common than conflict. Thousands of ethnic Muslim Caucasians from Georgia, Abkhazia and the North Caucasus left their homelands in the mid-19th century as Tsarist Russia took over the region. Both ethnic Georgians and ethnic Abkhaz often settled in places near the Sea of Marmara, where the topography resembled the mountainous homelands they left behind.

Ancient Game of Lelo/ Georgia

2010-10-02T01:21:00.000-07:00

my story (audiosleideshow) from Eurasianet.org

Ancient Game of Lelo Pits Villager Against Villager

While the rest of the country celebrates Easter every year at home around the dinner table, one village in western Georgia marks the day with a rugby-like scramble that effectively blocks traffic for hours on the country’s East-West national highway. The game, lelo ( "goal" in Georgian), has no rules, no time-outs and no limit to the number of men who may play. The object is to bring a 16-kilogram ball, brought out by a priest, to the riverbank, where the winning team will be able to claim it and deposit it on a cemetery plot of their choice.

VervePhoto -

2010-04-22T09:52:00.000-07:00

Verve Photo / The New Breed of Documentary Photographers:

refreshing web page run by Geoffrey Hiller featuring all kinds of documentary photographers -

me included.

Photos from Crimea published in Le Monde Magazine

2010-04-22T07:18:00.000-07:00

2010-04-22T06:35:00.000-07:00

THIS DAY OF CHANGE- book project by Courrier Japan with my work of settlements for IDP from 2008 war over South Ossetia

My favorite Georgian photographer

2009-05-15T23:48:00.000-07:00

For those who are interested in Georgia Photography here is a link to George Tsagareli web page-which I consider "father":) of Georgian photoreportage.

World Press Photo 09

2009-05-15T04:26:00.000-07:00

As some of you (who follow my work:) might already know I received Second Prize at the WPP for my coverage of War over South Ossetia in 2008.

On May 1-3 I was in Amsterdam on the Official Award Ceremony-and it was very interesting-especially to see work and meet other photographers which for various reasons but with all their hearts- and stubbornly!-continue to telling stories with their cameras.

I was able to go to Amsterdam thanks to support from European Cultural Foundation and their STEPbeyond travel grant.

Also big thanks for WPP team-I was amazed (and still am )how smooth ,well and efficient the whole competition and Award Ceremony were organized.

And biggest thank you is for all the people which during the war decided to share their story with me and let me to photograph them- as I was only a channel to pass their stories further.

And as I was many times before wondering how judges are able to go thru thousands and thousands of photos I wanted to share that video with you-as I imagined you was wondering about that as well.

Video is a speech given by Steven Mayes (managing director of VII Photo agency) who -if I am correct with exact title - was secretary of the WPP Jury for many years. On the background of his speech he projected photos he took during those years of working with the Judges.

Demos in Georgia

2009-05-14T04:58:00.000-07:00

Some might wander what is going on here-as I do -as we all do

Anyway I hope outcome will be good-and both sides will find a compromise-and start really talking!- instead of waiting for the "other side" to get weaker.

I plan to move a bit away from straightforward coverage of the news and using only digital camera to do so . For last 7 years I photographed all mayor demonstrations (mostly anti--... but some were pro-...) in South Caucasus -so to mark that planned change in

my professional life:) for last month I did some shots with my Yashika 6 by 6.

Eurovision politics

2009-02-19T03:44:00.000-08:00

Here in Caucasus Eurovision Contest is a big thing- and after initial plan to boycott contest which this year will be held in Moscow-Georgia decided to send their (protest-) song as well....

Song has catchy refrain:

"We don't wanna put-in

the negative mood is killing the groove"...

I put the link to studio version since live performance is not very impressive:)

Otherwise -if I was in the disco it would be fun song to dance to