Photographs from my first Book :
“ Woman with a Monkey - Caucasus in short notes and photographs “ published in 2014 .
Awarded:
2015 – Pictures of the Year / USA, 72nd edition , Best Photography Book Award, first finalist.
2015 – Won Photographic Publication of the Year as well as a special prize for self publishing, Fotofestiwal in Lodz
2018 - Included at the book : “How We See: Photobooks by Women “ , publication presenting a global range of 21st century hundred historically significant photobooks by women . That publication has received a Jury Special Mention at the 2019 Paris Photo Aperture Photobook awards. USA / 10by10 Photobooks .
I became a photographer because visual language suited me the best to both process and express my thoughts about the world and people around me . Yet people keep asking to explain my images, which made me frustrated ; if I had to use words, I would become a writer, not a photographer. I refused to explain , years later I realized that to convey a message, artists must know how to express themselves in words, even if their primary medium is visual.
As I began my first ten-year book project on the Caucasus, I knew the title had to be "Woman with a Monkey." I wasn’t sure why, but I felt certain of it. I anticipated questions about the title, and for four months during the summer of 2013, while designing the book, I struggled to explain in words my choice of title —it was tormenting. Then my friend suggested I simply describe what I had seen and that is what I did:
“ Back in 2002 in Tbilisi, when fancy cafes still had generators outside because of constant power cuts, I was at an unusual fashion show put on by a cosmetic company in a nightclub. Models with dark-painted faces were showing off discordant, brash clothing and bare skin while doing an African-style dance to modern pop music. In the far corner of the club I saw a woman with a _monkey. She was strikingly beautiful and stood motionless, deep in her thoughts, holding the monkey as if it were her child. Was she a performer from a long-closed circus, a desperate mother trying to feed her family or someone displaced by war? She may have been all of these, or none. But beautiful and alone, she stood out in the smoky din like a beam of light.”
