
Early Photographic Heritage of the South Caucasus
On the 11th of July, the Tbilisi Photography and Multimedia Museum hosts the "Early Photographic Heritage of the South Caucasus" symposium.
The symposium covers the history of early photography and the development of the medium in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the timeframe between the industrialization and the Soviet occupation of the region. Researchers from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia will hold presentations and explore the photographic legacy, its scope, preserving institutions, and historiography of the subject. The series of talks also examine private and institutional photography collections, including the Library of Congress holdings, which house rich visual materials on South Caucasia.
The symposium seeks to encourage studies in South Caucasus photography, establish professional links between researchers and institutions across the region and reflect on shared cultural heritage.
"Early Photographic Heritage of the South Caucasus" echoes TPMM's retrospective exhibition "Three Colours—Green, Red, Blue", which displayed photographs produced in XIX and at the beginning of the XX century in 2022 at the museum's premises.
The museum invites photography and visual history researchers, curators, gallerists and the general public interested in photography to attend the symposium.
Curated by Nino Dzandzava
The program:
10:30 Welcome note
10:45 Nestan Nizharadze (Tbilisi) Three Colours—Green, Red, Blue. Q&A with the presenter. Book presentation
11:30 Behruz Huseynzade (Baku) The Origins of the Photographic Process in Azerbaijan. Q&A with the presenter
12:15 Lika Mamatsashvili (Tbilisi) Early Photography in Georgia – Vladimir Barkanov. Q&A with the presenter
13:00 Break
15:00 Slideshow of early photographs from the collections of Tbilisi Photography and Multimedia Museum (Aleksandre Roinashvili (1846-1898), Tbilisi Amateur Photogra- phers Society (1893-1906), Early Tushetian Portrait (the 1920s), XIX Century Portrait in the Caucasus
15:30 Sargis Petrosyan (Yerevan) Early Photography in Armenia from 1850 to 1890s. Q&A with the presenter
16:15 Nino Dzandzava (Tbilisi) Tbilisi Amateur Photographer’s Society: Tbilisi Amateur Photographer's Society: Facts and Findings. Q&A with the presenter
17:00 Sergi Asmar (Tbilisi) Photographer in Focus: Edward Westley
17:45 Break
18:00 Cultural Attaché of the US Embassy, Christopher Anderson’s welcome note
18:15 Micah Messenheimer (Washington) Library of Congress’s South Caucasus visual
collections overview. Q&A with the presenter
18:30 Closure