• ABOUT US
    • History
    • Our Team
    • Advertising
    • Subscription
  • CONTACT US
Georgia Today
No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business & Economy
  • Social & Society
  • Sports
  • Culture
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business & Economy
  • Social & Society
  • Sports
  • Culture
No Result
View All Result
Georgia Today
No Result
View All Result

Recent Rust

by Georgia Today
March 21, 2024
in Blog, Editor's Pick, Newspaper, Social & Society
Reading Time: 3 mins read
Georgian Poets: Givi Gegechkori

On my way back from Svaneti to Tbilisi a couple of weeks ago, I had a few hours to kill in Zugdidi, arriving before noon and leaving after 5pm. This was mostly because, as I had done on the reverse journey up a week earlier, I would be doing the trip between Zugdidi and Tbilisi by train. It’s marginally cheaper, breaks up the journey, and is way more comfortable too; I would do the whole thing by train every time if the tracks went that far. I had just arranged a ride down to the main road connecting our village with the Zugdidi road, then hitchhiked the 2.5 hours to the capital of Samegrelo, not even bothering to book anything.

Leaving most of my baggage in the railway station’s Left Luggage gave me freedom to walk unencumbered for a few Lari. After lunching, I went to the city’s main steelyard, which has been an important materials supply location for our Svaneti renovation and building work in the last decade. So they know me there, although this was the first time I had asked just to wander around and shoot photos of all that lovely rust. No worries.


This steelyard is maybe a tenth the size of the one I have visited several times in Tbilisi’s Eliava industrial district. But there is still plenty to explore and capture on my camera. I suppose the main thing I had to avoid was bootprints on the stacks of sheet steel; but they were not a major encumbrance. Here, too, is where my favorite images come from: Not the bars or I-beams, which tend to be more heavily rusted- the bluish-tinted sheets with only slight corrosion are where the magic happens.


Some of my best images from this hour-long jaunt include a creature spreading its huge wings, about to fly off. Not a bird, necessarily, because its head is more like a human-shaped thing.

There is a happy couple, maybe just after getting married, aglow with warm colors.

A rather scary teddy bear, like something out of the recent horror film about Winnie the Pooh, Blood and Honey, which I have no interest in seeing. But there he was.


The hint of a man’s head looking right, more present in the outline than interior details. I might just photoshop a profile photo of me into this and see how it looks. (This one has given me the most reactions from the Zugdidi set I posted onto Facebook’s Rust Art group, over 800).

One I call “Lazarus Emerging from the Tomb,” although I do still invite viewers to see what they will and apply their own titles to these abstract pieces.

One of the workers had to use an angle grinder to cut a couple of large sections off a big steel sheet while I was there. I waited, far enough away that the noise wouldn’t be painful, for him to finish so I would get a first look at the sheet underneath, a first-time experience for me, kind of like those “unboxing a new product” videos on YouTube. There wasn’t much there, but the cut had magnetized all the steel particles into thin lines of attraction between two of the sheets, which was interesting to see.


As always, my main edits of the shot images were: Cropping to straighten slightly angled lines and eliminate distracting edge details; intensification and correction of the existing colors and contrast. I just strengthen what is there. Rust does the rest.

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

Tags: PhotographyrustTony Hanmer
ShareShareTweet

Related Posts

“Ukraine Has No Choice But to Fight”: Shekhovtsov on Why Surrender Means National Erasure
Editor's Pick

“Ukraine Has No Choice But to Fight”: Shekhovtsov on Why Surrender Means National Erasure

May 30, 2025
A destroyed tank in the village of Mykilske near Vuhledar city in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on May 27. Photo by Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
Highlights

Ukraine Latest: Drones, Drills, and Diplomacy

May 29, 2025
British journalist Will Neal denied entry to Georgia. Source: thedailybeast.com
Highlights

British Journalist Barred from Georgia after Investigating Links to Sanctioned Russian Oligarch

May 29, 2025

Recommended

Putin, Xi, and allied leaders mark Russia’s Victory Day at Moscow parade

Putin, Xi, and allied leaders mark Russia’s Victory Day at Moscow parade

3 weeks ago
Experience Seamless Connectivity with Silknet eSIM in Georgia

Experience Seamless Connectivity with Silknet eSIM in Georgia

11 months ago
Champion Karateka Luka Khvedeliani on the Benefits of Georgian Karate for Georgia’s Youth

Georgia to Celebrate First Europe Day with European Union Candidate Status

1 year ago
Georgian Foreign Minister Holds Farewell Meeting with French Ambassador to Georgia

Georgian Foreign Minister Holds Farewell Meeting with French Ambassador to Georgia

3 years ago
Natia Mezvrishvili on Dealing with 2 Political Giants

Natia Mezvrishvili on Dealing with 2 Political Giants

3 years ago
Giorgi Gakharia: We were Told We Were Capable of Nothing – It’s All a Lie and Ukraine is a Great Example of This

Giorgi Gakharia: We were Told We Were Capable of Nothing – It’s All a Lie and Ukraine is a Great Example of This

3 years ago
GT Interview with Giorgi Badridze

GT Interview with Giorgi Badridze

3 years ago
Russo-Ukrainian War and Georgia – Analysis from security expert Kakha Kemoklidze

Russo-Ukrainian War and Georgia – Analysis from security expert Kakha Kemoklidze

3 years ago

Navigation

  • News
  • Politics
  • Business & Economy
  • Social & Society
  • Sports
  • Culture
  • International
  • Where.ge
  • Newspaper
  • Magazine
  • GEO
  • OP-ED
  • About Us
    • History
    • Our Team
    • Advertising
    • Subscription
  • Contact

Highlights

MIA: Nika Melia detained on administrative charges

Ukraine Latest: Drones, Drills, and Diplomacy

British Journalist Barred from Georgia after Investigating Links to Sanctioned Russian Oligarch

The Blooming Electric Now: How DOCA Film Club’s ‘New Georgian Films’ Program Captures a Nation Mid-Transformation

ZEG Festival returns to Tbilisi with future-focused storytelling

Giorgi Bachiashvili: Ivanishvili’s orders led to my kidnapping and 2 days blindfolded

Trending

Experience Seamless Connectivity with Silknet eSIM in Georgia
Business & Economy

Experience Seamless Connectivity with Silknet eSIM in Georgia

by Georgia Today
June 26, 2024

Why Silknet's eSIM could be your top choice in Georgia  Since its introduction, eSIM technology has become...

Photo by the author

Virtuosity and Versatility: Marc-André Hamelin Opens Tbilisi Piano Festival 2024

May 30, 2024
  • Where.ge
  • Newspaper
  • GEO
  • Magazine
  • Old Website

2000-2024 © Georgia Today

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business & Economy
  • Social & Society
  • Sports
  • Culture
  • International
  • Where.ge
  • Newspaper
  • Magazine
  • GEO
  • OP-ED
  • About Us
    • History
    • Our Team
    • Advertising
    • Subscription
  • Contact

2000-2024 © Georgia Today