Life on the Rails: a photography exhibition by Vakho Khetaguri

Life on the Rails (2012-2016) is a photography exhibition by Georgian photographer Vakho Khetaguri, held in Tbilisi from 4-12 May 2016. The photo project is part of the Regional Art and Culture Project in the South Caucasus, managed by the Culture and Management Lab with financial support from the Swiss Cooperation Office for the South Caucasus.

The birth of the Georgian Railroad was on 10 October 1872 when the first train arrived in the Black Sea port of Poti from Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi. The first part of Khetaguri’s project is to show (in black-and-white photos) the everyday life of Georgians who use the train to travel from the rural regions to the capital to look for work or sell their crops. The railroad and its stations often become the first ‘shelter’ in the capital.

The second part of the Life on the Rails project focuses on the railroad’s main line from Tbilisi and the plan to construct an alternative line. Today, both freight trains and passenger trains travel on the same line. The construction of a detour line had begun in order to alleviate the congestion, but was halted in 2012 due to the change of government. Khetaguri studies the social, economic, and environmental impact that the detour line has on the people who live near the half-started construction. Life on the Rails is on ongoing project.

The photo below is Route: Tbilisi-Borjomi (2014).

The photo below is Route: Tbilisi-Kutaisi (2013).

Below is Rustavi, Georgia (2014). A man removes the remaining parts of the amusement park steam train dismantled over the past 25 years.

The photo below is Tbilisi, Georgia (2013), with a boy from the apartment block 40 meters from the rail line.

MARTINA NICOLLS is the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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