Photographer Of The Month
The Toscana Photographic Workshop’s Gallery, is way to keep in touch with our TPW students. Every month we will propose work from an ex-student, in order to closely observe his/her work, and to know how his/her commitment with photography is going, to get news about what has happened after the TPW experience…
The students’ portfolios will stay on-line for one year, so in the future it will be possible to view both current and previous portfolios.
We are interested in your opinions: write your point of view about the on-line-show at info@tpw.it
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La Gallery del Toscana Photographic Workshop è un modo per continuare a tenerci in contatto con gli studenti del TPW. Ogni mese, proporremo il lavoro di un ex – studente, per osservare da vicino il suo lavoro, e sapere come sta proseguendo il suo impegno nella fotografia, conoscere quello che è successo dopo il TPW…
I portfolio degli studenti rimarranno on-line per un anno, quindi sarà possibile, in futuro, visionare sia il portfolio corrente che quelli precedenti.
Siamo interessati al vostro parere: scriveteci con il vostro parere sulla mostra on line a info@tpw.it
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Anka Gujabidze
Waiting for the golden fish in the city of abeyance
This spring I decided to go to POTI, a small city with population of around 48.000 people at the coast of the Black Sea, in the western part of Georgia. Situated near the site of the ancient Greek colony of Phasis, today it’s a major port of the country. In my childhood, I used to spend summer holidays in Poti, and the desire to go back and capture the everyday life of a port city and its people was the initial idea of the project.
I got to Poti during the so called “fishing pause”, when catching fish at the sea had been forbidden for a month. One should mention that many in the city depend on fishing and it is their main occupation. I caught on camera a small group of fishermen at the beach; they were reluctant to show faces, knowing that fishing in the sea was a law offence. Unfortunately many local fishermen cannot afford to buy a fishing license and therefore either have to break law or head towards the lake of Paliastomi and spend hours in waiting to catch a fish or two.
When I compare my early memories of Poti with what I saw after 15 years, not much seems to have changed. Rusted gates, streets covered with gravel, unfinished buildings, kids playing in an old car frame, elderly women sitting at the entrance of their houses, everything seems to be just like it was. Nobody swam in the sea in that time and neither do they do now. People lead exactly the same sort of life as they did, waiting in abeyance for a miracle to happen.
I am dedicating my photos to the people of Poti who are friendly, always ready to share their food with you and never refuse to pose for photo in a funny way.
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Ann (Anka) Gujabidze
mobile: + (995) 99 921999
e‐mail: ankagujabidze@gmail.com
Anka Gujabidze was born in 1987 in Georgia, Tbilisi. Following the graduation from College of Media, Advertising and TV Arts, where she obtained a diploma of Journalist, she continued to study at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film University. Recently she finished her diploma work (short animation film Excluded) and is soon expected to be awarded B.A. degree in Animation Directing.
Alongside her academic education she has been deeply interested in Photography and since 2003 has collected a portfolio encompassing several projects. In the period 2007-2009 Anka attended classes at the private Photography School “Sepia”, established by the Association of Documentary Photographers of Georgia.
Anka is committed to documentary photography, whereas social issues are what interest her the most. Her works have been shown in various student group exhibitions in Georgia. In 2006 her photo ‘Friends’ was awarded the Grand Prix at the Photo contest Kolga, and later in 2010 the project presented above won the Third Prize of the contest.
Anka is fluent in Georgian, English and Russian.
