People of Georgia

An odd assortment today.

Top: a former landlord, Tengiz, furniture restorer. He and his family lived on the 2nd floor of a house in Tbilisi, I on the gound floor. I was there for more than 3 years - can't remember when in the last 20 years I've been in the same place for so long, such is my life.

2nd: view from Nariqala Church over Tbilisi's Old City, winter a few years ago.

3rd: one of my very favourite shots of Tbilisi - Rustaveli Avenue, opposite the Opera House.

4th: from the Kvirikoba Church festival in K'ala, Upper Svaneti, July 2007.

Etseri and Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia

Top: Ushguli. I love the look of old fences in winter, strung together from whatever's at hand. From far enough away they take on the look of that sublime Japanese brush ink painting of the simplest strokes on white paper, looking effortless but requiring enough hard practice time that the artist can say, "This took me... 20 years and 10 minutes to produce."

Second: Mt Shkhara and Lamaria Church again - different moods from anything seen before, never to be repeated

Third: More winter fences, Etseri

Fourth: Goats and pigs in the sun, Ushguli

More from Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia...

Hey, don't get tired of the place. I know I never will.

These are all from late winter-early spring 2008.

More from Ushguli, Svaneti, Georgia

It was really a privilege to live in Ushguli this last winter, as I hope my photographs demonstrate. (The middle shot of these 5 is of Mt Ushba from Etseri, Svaneti, which I visited in January.) It was the essence of winter, not really for cold but for amount of snow and the feeling of being shut in. But there was much beauty as well.

Georgia: People & Places

FINALLY finished scanning all 20 rolls of film from my last winter in Ushguli, Svaneti. I could have shot much more than this in the 5 months that I was there, but simply getting film from way up there was the problem, actually. Some November-December 2007 previews, including, from the top:

1st - Lamaria Church with Mt Shkhara backdrop, always spectacular

2nd - reflections in a large moonshine bottle
3rd - view through a ruined house's window

4th - one of my favourite views, from up high near the Tamar's tower overlooking the bottom of the village

5th - the top of the village by moonlight, tripod-mounted shot