Photographers have complete freedom to present their projects and each is selected on its own merits.

Introduction

Located in the heart of the Caucasus, Georgia spans the continental transition between Europe and Asia. It is an ancient place whose antecedence reaches back into pre-history – the site, among other things, of the world’s earliest known textile production, winemaking, and gold mining. In the nineteenth century, Georgia was annexed by the Tsarist Empire and, after a brief moment of independence following the Russian Revolution, it was invaded and annexed by the Soviet Union, only seceding in 1991. Since then, the independent republic has radically reformed its economy and is now recognised by the United Nations for the high quality of its citizen’s health, education, income, and living conditions.

Each year in May, the Georgian capital Tbilisi hosts a week-long festival of photography that, over the past twenty-three years, has grown to become one of the largest and best-known cultural events in the wider region. Its name, Kolga Tbilisi Photo, reflects the openness and inclusivity of the festival: ‘kolga’ being a Georgian word meaning umbrella. The program embraces many different approaches to photography, from the traditional to the most technologically advanced, in imagery created by local and international artists. Indeed, embrace is a word that well captures both its programming and its essential character. For this is a festival that opens its arms and its heart to all who share a passion for photography and a curiosity to explore the many ideas that images can evoke.

To find out more about Kolga Tbilisi Photo I reached out to its director and founder Beso Khaindrava.

Alasdair Foster

---

Interview

How did the festival begin?

It started with a photo competition; an idea that my friend Levan Japaridze and I came up with back in the winter of 2001. (Levan was the head of the student organisation at the Technical University of Georgia.) We wanted to stage an exhibition of work by university students and thought that making it a competition would be an incentive to participate. We soon realised that we should open this out to include all higher educational institutions in Georgia, and so we did, calling the competition Kolga (umbrella). Our first attempt took place in 2002 and, despite a minimal budget, it attracted great interest from young people. And so, in the autumn of the same year, we held a second, larger competition. This attracted even more people, confirming us in our decision to develop our enterprise further, in time becoming a festival.

What was the initial aim of the event?

At first, to be honest, we did it more for fun. We were young and we really liked connecting with so many young photographers, bringing them joy and seeing our exhibitions become such popular events. At that time, the national economy was very weak. There were few cultural activities available and our festival quickly became one of the country’s special events.

Over the years, our so-called fun took on a more serious aspect. Our aim was to identify talented young Georgian photographers and show their work to the general public, promoting their names and their creativity. More recently our goal has become much more international. Kolga Tbilisi Photo Week is a place for intercultural dialogue, introducing audiences to contemporary photographic trends while highlighting the importance of Tbilisi and Georgia globally.

[Left] © Stefano Schirato ‘Arminuta – A Girl Returned’ presented in the One-Shot section of the 2021 competition
[Right] © Mustafa Hassona – from the series ‘Palestinian Rights of Return Protests’ presented in the Reportage section of the 2019 competition

What is the relationship today between the award and the festival?

The photo competition remains integral to our festival. Many international and local photographers take part in it. The projects presented here are real gems, and we are very proud that trust and interest in the competition continues to grow steadily. In addition to the competition there is a non-competitive program, which includes a variety of local and international exhibitions, workshops, lectures, and portfolio reviews. We developed this section in 2012 with the help of the Georgian photographer and curator Teona Gogichaishvili, who was working in Germany. We also invited the German curator Tina Schelhorn and curator–artist Wolfgang Zurborn to join the competition jury. Their contribution helped to build awareness of Kolga Tbilisi Photo, raising its international profile immeasurably.

Does the festival focus on a particular genre of photography or annual theme?

We set no boundaries or special themes for the festival. On the contrary, our respect for photography is expressed in the breadth and variety of our programs. The only categories we have in the competition are when we announce the shortlisted nominations. These are: documentary series, reportage, conceptual series, single shot, and photographs made with a cell phone. But, within these categories, photographers have complete freedom to present their projects and each is selected on its own merits.

[Left] © Ilkin Huseynov – from the AI text-to-image series ‘Looming Dreams’ presented in 2023
[Right] © Filippo Venturi – from the AI text-to-image series ‘Broken Mirror’ presented in 2023

What is your position on images that have been made wholly or in part using artificial intelligence image generators (AI)?

The use of AI in photography has generated a lot of discussion in the photography community. There cannot be one clear opinion here. I believe that if this method of raising current issues and implementing many interesting ideas makes it easier for more people to achieve their goals, then using this method is completely acceptable and to be encouraged. However, photography, real creativity, is a completely different process, one that requires a lot of physical and intellectual labour.

Where do you present the work in the festival?

Exhibitions are held in various spaces: galleries, museums, alternative spaces, clubs, and so on. In the past we have staged some large events in the open air. But this comes with greater risk regarding the weather, so in recent years we have moved away from outdoor events. That said, one of our regular exhibits involves installing large lightboxes on the Baratashvili Bridge in Tbilisi, which is a beautiful sight.

[Upper Left] An exhibition of lightboxes displayed on the Baratashvili Bridge, Tbilisi, in 2021 (photo: Shota Tsikurishvili)
[Upper Right] Before the opening night: an exhibition installed in the windows of Rooms hotel, Tbilisi in 2014 (photo: Wolfgang Zurborn)
[Lower] Before the opening night: 100 lightboxes installed at Tbilisi Central in 2011 (photo: Juda Khatia Psuturi)

Tell me about some of the high points of past festivals?

I think all our festivals are special… but I suddenly recall the opening ceremonies of three festivals in particular. I remember these events because they were so visually impressive. In 2005, we managed to close the main street of Georgia, exhibiting one hundred giant photographs on Rustaveli Avenue. It was our first large-scale event and a really big challenge. I am not sure I would attempt something similar today!

In 2011, we created a dramatic installation of one hundred lightboxes in a large dark space – a temporarily vacant unit within Tbilisi Central, a commercial complex that includes shops and a train station. In 2014, we opened the festival at Rooms, the most popular hotel in Tbilisi, fitting about fifty photographs into the huge windows of the reconstructed building. It was a truly spectacular sight.

On the other hand, I would definitely note the exhibitions of many of my favourite photographers: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Marc Riboud, Sarah Moon, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Jan Grarup, Jonas Bendiksen, as well as many more contemporary photographers.

Of these more contemporary photographers, which projects are you particularly proud of having shown?

That is a big question… But I suddenly recall ‘Tales of Islands’, curated by in 2019 by Tina Schelhorn. This amazing exhibition included work by the Belgian photographer Sanne De Wilde from her project ‘The Island of the Colourblind’. Set in the late eighteenth century, this series tells the story of a catastrophic typhoon that swept over a tiny atoll in the Pacific Ocean called Pingelap. One of the survivors, the king, carried the rare achromatopsia gene that causes complete colour blindness. The king went on to have many children and, as time passed on this isolated island, the hereditary condition came to affect the wider community so that the islanders started seeing the world in monochrome.

Now I remember many other projects, but it’s enough to mention Sanne, otherwise we won’t be able to finish this interview… [broad smile]

[Left] © Guram Tikanadze ‘On the Way to the Football Stadium’ from the exhibition ‘Other Soviet Man’ presented in 2022
[Right] © Guram Tikanadze ‘Svan Boy’ 1963 from the exhibition ‘Other Soviet Man’ presented in 2022 (This was the last photograph made by Guram Tikanadze)

So…

But no! Let me tell you about someone that I’m pretty sure you will not have heard of. His name is Guram Tikanadze. He is an iconic Georgian photographer. He would have turned ninety last year, had he not died in 1963 while descending Shkhara, the highest peak in our country. He was a great mountaineer and also an excellent documentary photographer. His short career spans just three years, but I believe that he is completely unique; the outstanding star of Georgian Soviet photography. I really want the international photography world to know about his work. I’m sure this would be a great discovery for them.

What is the funniest thing that has happened at the festival?

I don’t know if this is funny, but I do remember a curious moment. In 2017, Tina Schelhorn organised ‘Fauna – Wild Beasts, Sheep & Crocodiles’, an exhibition of work by many famous and interesting photographers that was exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in Tbilisi. The task of hanging photographs turned out to be very labour-intensive and time-consuming. An hour before the exhibition was due to open I entered the gallery and saw that the work of one of the artists still lay on the floor in their frames, a group of installers desperately trying to hang them on the wall. Soon, the guests would arrive and would witness the photo-hanging still in process. Naturally, the artist was anxious. I looked at the photographs and suggested that Tina leave them on the floor; it would add an innovative flourish to an already diverse exhibition. The artist and the installers breathed a sigh of relief. We had found the best solution at the time… For a whole month, this truly wonderful exhibition was displayed with that work on the ground. And the visitors to the exhibition never guessed that the installation of photographs on the floor was not simply the curator’s inspired idea. [another broad smile]

[Left] © Karen Knorr ‘India Song’ from the exhibition ‘Fauna – Wild Beasts, Sheep & Crocodiles’ presented in 2017
[Right] Installation of ‘Noah’s Ark’ by Annet van der Voort from the exhibition ‘Fauna – Wild Beasts, Sheep & Crocodiles’ presented in 2017 (photo: Wolfgang Zurborn)

How can a photographer become involved in the festival?

Anyone can take part in the competition. The program is compiled over the course of a year. We are open to unsolicited approaches. Some people contact us themselves, others we invite.

If a photographer is selected, who pays for what?

The exhibitions are definitely our concern. Mostly, we print the photographs of a selected photographer in Tbilisi and prepare them for display here.

Sometimes we are able to obtain funding to cover a photographer’s travel and hotel expenses. At other times artists come at their own expense. Each case is different.

Do you work with other festivals or photographic institutions internationally?

We have collaborated with the laif photo agency many times and shown exhibitions by their photographers during the festival. We are friends with the Prospekt photo agency in Italy, and we had a relationship with Magnum that resulted in an exhibition of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s work. We have also collaborated with various photo publications and platforms including fotoMAGAZIN [Germany], GUP magazine [Netherlands], Leica Fotografie International, and Photonews [Germany].

[Left] © Paulo Pellegrin – from the series ‘Sakartvelo’ presented in 2024
[Right] © John Stanmeyer – from the exhibition ‘Consciousness – a need to awaken’ presented in 2024

Tell me about the recent festival.

This year we hosted Paolo Pellegrin and John Stanmeyer, among other wonderful photographers. Paolo’s exhibition was curated by Dina Oganova, herself a well-known Georgian photographer. In it she brought together two bodies of work. The first documents his family’s escape into the Swiss alps during the Covid pandemic. As a family, they agreed that Paolo would not go out and document the pandemic but stay with his wife and their daughters in this rural haven. It was the first time he had decided not to photograph a major global event and also the first time he had seriously documented his immediate family, rather than simply take snaps on a cell phone. The other series explores contemporary expressions of spirituality in Georgia. Coming from Italy, Paolo was familiar with the strong presence of Roman Catholicism in civic life, but without much deeply felt belief. In contrast, he found in Georgia a profound sense of devotion – or religious commitment – in both the city and the rural villages.

John Stanmeyer is a National Geographic photographer and co-founder of the VII Agency. His exhibition – which spanned more than two decades of storytelling – called for humankind to wake up to the global realities climate change, environmental degradation, and socio-economic disparity. It was a provocation to contemplate the impact of the Anthropocene. His exhibition was curated by Annie Davarashvili.

Both artists gave seminars, and John also gave a workshop.

[Left] © Leonardo Carrato – from the exhibition ‘en bora’ presented in 2024
[Right] © Gregor Sailer – from the exhibition ‘The Polar Silk Road 2017–2022’ presented in 2024

The Brazilian photographer Leonardo Carrato presented a powerful series investigating native spirituality and cultural diversity of the Amazon rainforest, and the countless alternative ways to live in a pre-colonial world. Meanwhile, from the north, the Austrian photographer Gregor Sailer spent five years exploring the arctic region, finding there an unexpected resonance with the nineteenth century travellers on the Silk Road. Teona Gogichaishvili curated his exhibition.

We also presented some noteworthy work by Georgian photographers including Nikoloz Tabukashvili who documented the shrouding of historical buildings during the reconstruction of Tbilisi’s Orbeliani and Gudiashvili squares. And Maryam Mumladze, whose images contrast the human-made with the natural landscape in a meditation upon the nature of risk.

I will stop there… But, believe me, all the exhibitions deserve attention. [expansive gesture]

[Left] © Nikoloz Tabukashvili – from the exhibition ‘New Tbilisi’ presented in 2024
[Right] © Maryam Mumladze – from the exhibition ‘Shifting Landscapes – the nature of risk’ presented in 2024

Have there been particular challenges in preparing the festival this year?

This has been a difficult spring in Georgia. The country received candidate status for the European Union last autumn, but earlier this year the government began to consider legislation that directly goes against integration into the European Union. This move caused great protest among the majority of the population concerned that the government is leaning towards the enemy of our country – Russia. There have been thousands of demonstrations, as our thoughts turn to the country’s future. Believe me, this is, and has been, a lot of stress, which inevitably constrained us in the staging of the festival. However, we remain aware of our responsibilities and spared no effort in overcoming the many challenges we faced.

What makes your festival different from other festivals?

Oh, that’s a tough one. There may be many things that distinguish our festival from others. But perhaps that is a question best left for others to answer…

---

photo: Markus Diefanbacher

---

This interview is a Talking Pictures original.

---