Shooting at the Steps: Tbilisi

I had about half an hour to kill before the English-speaking guide would be ready for my tour of the national treasures, so I wandered back to the park at Liberty Square, parked myself in front of the steps leading down to a pedestrian underpass, and shot at most everything that went by.  It was an exercise in little more than passing time resulting in 50+ images more to process.  Individually they are not much to look at, so I put them together in the hopes they might be in the composite.  What I discovered that day is that almost no one objects to a camera pointed at them on the street.  One person said, "Why?," in passing, but the only ones who stopped were those who wanted to pose. 

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Exhibit Review: The Traveling Museum of the Caucasus

During my one-week stay in Tbilisi, I had the great fortune to attend a temporary exhibit (now closed) at the Museum of Georgia featuring the photographic work of Alexander Roinashvili, a 19th century ethnographer popularly known as Georgia’s first photographer.  He was, it seems, interested mostly in the documentary function of the camera, which he carried across Georgia recording the folk ways of the country’s many villages, towns and cities.  He worked in a variety of genres to document all manner of life, from landscape to portrait to still life.  He was as well a collector of artifacts, amassing a huge collection of tools, weapons, clothing, furniture, and other items of everyday life, many of which were on display at last month’s exhibit, along with a selection of photos, largely landscapes and portraits.  While the collection on display was quite impressive, I was somewhat disappointed in the relative lack of images compared to artifacts, but otherwise thrilled to learned about such an important, resourceful, and dedicated photographer.  A two-volume set of images has been published in Georgia, and before better sense prevailed I almost bought one. For those that might be interested in exploring, two useful web links are provided below.

19th century mountaineer and photographer Vittorio Sella

In anticipation of my March trip to Georgia, I've been reading on the Caucasus and today ran into the work of Vittorio Sella.  It appears he is most well-know for his mountain landscapes and the published  books appear to be devoted to just this.  Of more interest are his ethnographic images of villages and village life.  

More on Sella: