I had been vacillating on trying to photograph and video the funeral process of Ilia II, Catholicos-Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church, on March 22. Crowds outside Sameba cathedral for his wake had swelled after my short, easy trip there on the 19th; waits of longer than 8 hours were being reported, whereas my earlier one had been an hour. It had rained on those later days as well, but people were determined. Transport, free and private, was bringing thousands of people to Tbilisi from across the country to pay their final respects. In the end, I decided to try to join in.
There was no easy information about the coffin’s route from huge Sameba to the smaller, ancient Sioni (Zion) church in the old city, where the Patriarch had stipulated that he was to be buried. Roads were blocked between the cathedral and the church, though. I went to the city center by metro, and asked about the route at Metekhi church. My assumption had been across the Metekhi bridge, but the Baratashvili bridge was the actual route. So I walked up to Avlabari metro stop to see how things looked there, still a couple of hours early.
Crowds were gathering, as they would be everywhere, at the join of the road coming down from the cathedral and that going downhill to the bridge. Hundreds of uniformed policemen were already standing shoulder to shoulder on both edges of the cathedral road. At the junction, these were replaced by soldiers in uniform, with every 5th one or so holding a Georgian flag on a wooden pole.
I chose a spot which gave me a vantage of both roads, and stood there awhile. But eventually a police SUV came and parked to block these views, and seemed to be intent on staying there. So, with the crowds now having swelled considerably, I had to find another place. My height puts me at a disadvantage in such situations, which once or twice I have overcome by climbing onto something; but this time there was nothing available. The best I could do was choose a place which gave me a crucial sliver of cathedral road to see, hope not to be jostled away from it, and wait some more.
The coffin and procession were scheduled to leave Sameba at 2pm, but it took them well over an hour to travel that short distance to where my crowd and I were. Frequent movements in the throng closer to the cathedral proved to me nothing, until eventually the scene began appearing. Priests, banners, the open-backed hearse with its top entirely covered (as far as ground-eye views could discern) with yellow flowers, but the coffin actually in the midst of these. I did what hundreds of people within sight were also doing, held up my cellphone to get some video (prompting mutters from behind of us of blocked views and Why didn’t I stay at home to watch it on TV). Alternating between that and DSLR camera was tricky, but at least things were moving slowly enough for me to get some stills too.
I admit to thinking, seeing not only the sea of cellphones but many cameras like mine too: How can my photos stand out? And decided to adopt one of my favorite techniques, slow shutter speed for motion blur. Not, I add, simply to try to be different for its own sake. Actually, the flags’ motion in the wind, and the procession’s movement contrasted with the stillness of the soldiers, gave me what I wanted to evoke. Then I processed everything in black and white at home.
The crowd remained calm, for which I was very glad. Any panic or anger could have turned into a stampede, such as one hears on the news, with deaths by trampling. Spontaneous applause, chants of “We love you!” broke out. Once the head of the procession moved past me, I walked downhill in the now moving crowd, and got more photos from the downhill towards Baratashvili bridge, where I remained until it was time to get the metro home. Goodbye, move on.
Blog by Tony Hanmer
Tony Hanmer has lived in Georgia since 1999, in Svaneti since 2007, and been a weekly writer and photographer for GT since early 2011. He runs the “Svaneti Renaissance” Facebook group, now with over 2000 members, at www.facebook.com/groups/SvanetiRenaissance/
He and his wife also run their own guest house in Etseri: www.facebook.com/hanmer.house.svaneti
