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).

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. That

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass

The Beggars' Strike by Aminata Sow Fall: book review

The Beggar’sStrike (1979 in French and 1981 in English) is set in an unstated country in West Africa in a city known only as The Capital. Undoubtedly, Senegalese author Sow Fall writes of her own experiences. It was also encapsulated in the 2000 film, Battu , directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko from Mali. Mour Ndiaye is the Director of the Department of Public Health and Hygiene, with the opportunity of a distinguished and coveted promotion to Vice-President of the Republic. Tourism has declined and the government blames the local beggars in The Capital. Ndiaye must rid the streets of beggars, according to a decree from the Minister. Ndiaye instructs his department to carry out weekly raids. One of the raids leads to the death of lame beggar, Madiabel, who ran into an oncoming vehicle as he tried to escape, leaving two wives and eight children. Soon after, another raid resulted in the death of the old well-loved, comic beggar Papa Gorgui Diop. Enough is enou

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog