Accidental portraits (2020) are a series of photographs inspired by a tragedy. “My family’s photo archive was destroyed in a fire a long time ago. Only a small number of burnt, torn, partially destroyed photographs remained. The small nostalgic photos inspired me to work on a new genre that would give me the same feelings as the photos that survived from the fire. I try to create this mood in accidental portraits that I see every day. When I browse through my old family album and touch the photographs, I feel some exceptional energy condensed in them. I always wanted to recreate this very effect of palpable, intimate experience in my photography. That’s the main reason I decided to print my shots under the red light. Darkroom is the best place for this type of experimentation. In this process I am discovering a hidden, parallel world that is very dear to me, especially, because we live in a digital era and in the deficiency of tangible photography.”

At night, In Tbilisi, while walking around you may come across a reality that is different from the real world. Such a feeling came to me when I first met a homeless person, who was sleeping in the street. When I returned home, I was thinking for a long time about him and I've decided to depict that reality in my pictures, despite its complexity. It took a few years to search for, and take images of the homeless people with the different experiences of living in the streets, either because of the personal drama or mostly because of the consequences of the civil war and Russian occupation with common features. me living place at all, I reckon that, after a while, time may erase even the unbearable state of the poverty, but I consider that, without acknowledgment of the problem, even time cannot cure the traumatic experiences of the past.

Historical discourse about Tbilisi includes a story on the religious diversity of the city. Even today, representatives of various confessions conduct religious services and a lead a religious life in Tbilisi. while taking pictures of religious gatherings, I've found myself in different ceremonies and rituals. While working on the project I attended Baptist's - baptism ceremony, also protestant service in Vake and a gathering of Egyptian Copts in Didube, who emigrated from Egypt to Tbilisi because of religious persecution. Also I saw the ritual of Orthodox parishioners in the church of St. John and the visit of the Pope of Rome in the Lokomotiv stadium.

Coincidences often condition changes. My family's photo archive burned long ago. Only a small number of photos survived. Burned, torn, cropped sided and distorted small photos speed up the searching process. The small nostalgic photos inspired me to work on a new genre that would give me the same feelings as the photos survived from the fire. I try to create this mood in accidental portraits that I see every day ...