A journalist and a photographer

Photo by Temo Bardzimashvili

I used to call myself a photojournalist. When my friends and colleagues heard the word “photojournalist,” they thought “photographer for a newspaper.” In the early 1980s, a photojournalist received an assignment from an editor or reporter, traveled to a particular place, at a particular time, and photographed whatever the journalist had requested. A photojournalist primarily worried about HOW to take a GOOD photograph.

These thoughts were stimulated by Temo Bardzimashvili identity as “a Georgian journalist and photographer.” Note that the word “journalist” precedes the word “photographer.” Indeed, Temo is a journalist who reports on social, environmental and ethnographic topics. He spends a lot of time making phone calls and traveling around to learn WHAT to photograph, WHEN to photograph, and WHY these photographs have consequence. He is a journalist who happens to use a camera to “take notes.” Temo’s printed notes (photographs) along with captions become his “story.”

I thoroughly enjoyed Temo’s journalism in a photo exhibition called “The Unpromised Land – the Meskhetians’ Long Journey Home.” Sponsored by the European Centre for Minority Issues, his photographs, accompanied by informative captions in both Georgian and English, appeared at the Literature Museum in Tbilisi. The photographs tell stories about the culture, identity, and religion of Meskhetian communities currently living in Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey. They also show the history of Meskhetians’ deportation.

Although the exhibition has ended, you can see examples of Temo’s work here http://agency.photographer.ru/authors/index.htm?id=102, and you can read about his work here: http://temobardzimashvili.com/.

Photo by Temo Bardzimashvili

Photo by Temo Bardzimashvili