The Black Sea Multimedia Photo Project presents over a decade-long project of people and scenes from various countries around the Black Sea to depict similarities and contrasts between them.
Hosted by the Design Institute and Kolga Tbilisi Photo, the project will be on display September 6, at the Design Institute. The project creators are Ioana Calinescu and Petrut Calinescu, photographers and co-founders of The Center for Documentary Photography in Romania. The project, which started in 2010, began with Petrut and his longing to explore other countries bordering the Black Sea.
Petrut tells GEORGIA TODAY that he was born in the seaside city of Constanta, Romania, and always desired to see what else was around the Black Sea. Rather than looking to the West, where he says many people wanted to go at the time, he turned his attention to the East. He wanted to explore the prejudices and stereotypes often associated with the area.
The project includes works from Bulgaria, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania. Friday’s event will be showcased through zines, experimental publications, and rolling photographs. Ioana notes that when the rolling film is shown, guests guess what country the photo is from to see if they can spot differences, and more often than not, it’s not so easy to tell.
Petrut claims there is still a fear of the Black Sea. People see it as dangerous because of its past. With their project, however, they want to show that it’s a normal place, and one often prepared for tourists, a place where people go to enjoy the sun and feel at peace.
“This a fantasy place. The Black Sea can be a fairytale world where you see things you didn’t expect to see, and this is why we don’t make too many plans,” says Petrut. “We prefer reality rather than doing our own research.”
Often, photographs for Petrut and Ioana start with a trip, where they stop at every beach or road along the way, which is what they did while visiting the Georgian coast. They say they scout for smaller areas away from resorts because the atmosphere is more intimate. Petrut says there’s also less mess and lower visual noise. Even Romania and Georgia are drastically different from each other, and each is heavily different now from what they looked like in 2010.
There’s one particular photograph that Petrut says sticks in his mind: two women fishing off a concrete walkway in the Black Sea. He says that the shot is interesting because the women are participating in a field predominantly run by men, but also because they are dressed like they are going to “walk down the boulevard in Paris.” He captured the photo when one of the women looked like they had caught a large fish; however, her line was just stuck.
Another aspect of the project which is ongoing in 2024 is how the Black Sea is being affected by the war in Ukraine. Petrut says the impact is rather invisible, and it’s difficult to capture photos of beaches in Ukraine since most of them are blocked off for the military or deemed as secure areas. However, the project does document military tensions surrounding the sea. He says it is strange in Romania to see the military mix with the sea, because it is a place most people view as an escape from regular life, a place of liberty.
“It’s a holiday, people are going to the beach, and next to them are 20 armored vehicles waiting in line,” Petrut tells GEORGIA TODAY. “There isn’t anything happening at the moment, but you can guess that in some other place, there is something happening. Something is in the air.”
While the Black Sea Multimedia Photo Project is displayed in Tbilisi, Georgian filmmakers and other creatives continue to struggle within the country. Anna Dziapshipa is a director, producer, and board member of the Documentary Association of Georgia (DOCA) who has been in the industry since 2008. For years, she says there has been an ongoing battle between filmmakers and the Georgian National Film Center because of documentary films and their association with politics.
She says up to 500 filmmakers have boycotted the center because of an administration change in 2023. Dziapshipa says the Center is associated with mistrust and censorship, which filmmakers don’t want to be a part of, so collaboration has been put on hold. She says only those who received funding and grants before the administration switch have continued developing their projects.
However, for the other creators, the international market is needed, which she says is only accessible with support from the person’s home country. Dziapshipa tells GEORGIA TODAY that documentaries give an opportunity to dive deeper into lost concepts or those that are underestimated. Due to this, she says it is a vital form of storytelling that requires a large amount of time and empathy.
“It concerns real stories and real people,” says Dziapshipa. “In this oversaturation of the imagery and flow of constant information, it creates a subjective perspective of certain issues that are so much biased in the media, for example, and you would need some deeper reflection about it.”
Dziapshipa notes that many documentaries and projects are co-produced with creators from different countries. She says the industry is based on this, and while she is open to collaborating with others, she wants Georgian voices to be heard.
“It’s important to tell our own stories because we are part of it,” she says. “We will find a way to do that in any circumstances.”
Dziapshipa and Salomé Jashi, a documentary filmmaker known for her piece, ‘Taming the Gardens’, are board members of DOCA, an association that unites documentary filmmakers. They are also co-founders of Sakdoc Film, which promotes documentaries as an art form, helps creators produce documentary films, supports those within the industry, and established Georgia’s first documentary pitching forums.
Dziapshipa says filmmakers are in a ‘breathing period’ until October, when Georgia will have their elections.
The Black Sea Multimedia Photo Project will be open on September 6 at the Design Institute in Tbilisi from 18.00. The Romanian Cultural Institute has cofinanced the project through the Cantemir Program – a funding framework for cultural projects intended for the international environment.
By Shelbi R. Ankiewicz
