It’s here! Seven years in the making and now it’s a beautiful book, 224 pages strong and 805g heavy.
Once again it was a very special journey, this time mostly due to the incredible artists and people I was able to meet and then collaborate with along the way.
Thank you very much to everyone involved, but especially to the phantastic Georgian photographers Dina Oganova, Giorgi Shengelia, Guram Tsibakhashvili, Natela Grigalashvili, Tinatin Kiguradze, Vakho Khetaguri and Yuri Mechitov for buying in to the idea and for their willingness to participate and share their stories.
To the amazing writers Ana Kordzaia-Samadashvili and Dato Turashvili for being open to the direction of our project and enriching the visual stories with their words. To my friend Giorgi Tabliashvili, who is not only a gifted artist, but also contributed an essay and helped me gain a better understanding of Georgia through our countless discussions over the years. And to his mum Marina Tabliashvili for welcoming me into their home – she just makes the best Khachapuri.
Then there’s Otar Karalashvili, who I met at exactly the right time when I thought about who I wanted to work with on the execution of the book. He’s a master art book designer and it was a great pleasure working on – and fighting about – the book’s concept, design, editing and everything else that happens in the process of bringing it all together.
Not to forget: there’s Myriam Grigalashvili, who provided invaluable input and help in the communication process. Sybilla Heinze who translated all the Georgian essays into a brillant German version, Natalia Buka-Peters and Charlotte Marsden who did the same for the English version. And Heike Bleitner and Patrick Van de Wille who helped us with their copy editing skills.
Alex Berdysheff and Nino Keshelava – thank you for your friendship, for opening your world and doors for me, for sheltering me more than once.
Last but not least, thank you to our supporters, institutional or private, for their help in making this idea become a real book, especially the Georgian National Book Center with Irine Chogoshvili, who always was a patient and positive facilitator along the way.
And now I can’t wait to get „Tamar, Where Are You?“ out and share our stories about Georgia with the world.