After the "Russian law" was introduced in parliament, many in Georgia felt the country was turning from the EU toward Russia. Protests erupted in Tbilisi, shaping a tense political climate before the 2024 elections. I captured these photos after the elections when the opposition rejected the results and set up red tents in front of parliament. The Soviet-era building behind them intensified fears of a past Georgia had already lived through. Against the backdrop of the red tents—evoking the symbolism of the Soviet flag in front of the parliament building—I began capturing the people protesting the election results. What initially started as photojournalistic documentation gradually took on a conceptual dimension, encompassing portraits of people from different generations.

In Tbilisi, protests have been ongoing for more than two years against the "Russian Law." In the October 26, 2024 elections, the ruling party claimed victory, a result that was not recognized by the majority of local and international organizations. On November 28, Georgia's Prime Minister announced a suspension of all relations with the European Union until 2028. This declaration sparked widespread public outrage. These photos were taken the morning after one of the protests, during which riot police surrounded and brutally suppressed the demonstrators. It was probably the first time that I didn't think about the aesthetic or the interest of the photos at all; I just took what I saw in the morning.

Here are some photos I took during the protests in Georgia. People were rallying against the so-called "Russian law," which aimed to label individuals working in NGOs as "foreign agents" if they received funding from abroad. A similar law in Russia effectively eliminated freedom of speech and shut down all opposition media. This law had the same potential in Georgia. During these protests, the police used disproportionate force and engaged in brutal physical confrontations with the demonstrators. The situation worsened when Irakli Kobakhidze announced that Georgia was suspending its EU membership process. People took this as the final signal that Georgia was not just adopting the "Russian law" but was becoming Russia itself. The photos were taken from April 2024 to February 2025.