People of Georgia

Just one photo for now. This is of my great friend Dennis Holt, from California, USA, living with his family in Georgia (thus a fine candidate for my People of Georgia series) and involved in all sorts of humanitarian and spiritual work. Yesterday he managed to break his 2 lower leg bones in 3 places while playing soccer, and this is him today, about 18 hours and 1 operation later, 5 screws and a bunch of amazing stitches into the bargain. 5-7 more days in hospital, up to 3 months on crutches, they say. But still smiling - good pain drugs, maybe? Seriously, you can't keep a good man down, and this is one of those. Hang in there, bro.

People of Georgia

More from Tbilisi's monuments and other art, top to bottom:

St George killing the dragon, watched over by Mother Georgia and her sword/winebowl combination ("Drink this wine, dear guest, or I'll cut your throat!" goes the joke, though the sword is supposed to be for enemies...). This combination of two far-apart sculptures had to be lined up quite carefully from near Freedom Square

Chased copper icon of Jesus, from the doors of Anchiskhati Church

A huge stone woman's head with an enigmatic smile, outside another of the Old City's very many Orthodox churches

The muse of theatre, near the Philharmonia

Etim Gurgi, poet who wrote in Georgian, Azeri and Armenian

Kakheti, Georgia, continued

More from the supra (table) and grapevines of the east of the country - 'tis the season.

Kakheti, Georgia

Recent digital work from my new Canon machine, a couple of days in eastern Georgia. Grape season, and a supra (table) at which there were Georgians, Ossetians, Germans and a British-Canadian masquerading as a Svan, complete with his own miniature drinking horn from Ushguli, training-wheels size, which he happily lent to the tamada, or toastmaster.

A New Book about Georgia

Just in time, while the world's attention is focused on Georgia, comes a new book from it and about it. A love story... Georgian-Russian at that. Reissued on Sept. 21 by a good friend and fellow Svaneti fanatic, Peter Nasmyth. See details at http://www.mtapublications.co.uk/ and note, incidentally, the company logo design, which I contributed during my recent visit to Peter in London. The book is also on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Timeless-Nicholas-Tchkotoua/dp/0955914515/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220842775&sr=1-2

I'm off to Kakheti again until Wednesday. More images to follow then, stay tuned.

People of Georgia

These people, from my archives, are all memorialised, long gone. From the top:

Kazbegi (Kazbek), writer, at his village just south of the Russian border
King David Aghmashenebeli (the Builder), who united Georgia for the first time, in Kutaisi
Unidentified figure from a church wall, Mtskheta
St Nino, who brought Christianity to Georgia in the early 4th century as a slave woman from Cappadocia, Turkey, from from the huge bell at Sveti-Tskhoveli Cathedral, Mtskheta
Stalin, Telavi (I found him like that; the bird's nest was there already!)