24 April 2013 • 4:00 pm 0
According to some accounts, in his later life the apostle Simon preached and was martyred on the northern Black Sea coast. Local tradition maintains that he lived in a cave near Psyrtskha — which in the 19th Century inspired the building of the New Athos Monastery. The cave itself now contains a small shrine.
Filed under: Abkhazia, Photography, apostle, christianity, orthodoxy, saint
6 March 2013 • 7:39 pm 0
At daytime, the Bridge of Peace in Tbilisi (built in 2010 after a design by Michele De Lucchi) just doesn’t work for me, its turquoise modernity too glaringly out-of-place in the old city centre.
At night, however, the bridge lights up and becomes very photogenic, especially in black-and-white.
Filed under: Georgia, Photography, architecture, bridges
27 February 2013 • 11:44 pm 0
Despite the fact that trains are once again running from Sukhum to Adler, Sochi and Moscow, many railway stations remain abandoned and/or in disrepair and it is possible to walk along the single track.
The slideshow below shows a selection of stations, between Psou at the Russian border and Sukhum. The photos are from 2010 and so the situation may have changed in the meantime.
Filed under: Abkhazia, Photography, abandoned, architecture, railway, soviet
26 December 2012 • 8:00 am 0
Ever since it burned down in the final days of the 1992–1993 war, when Abkhazian forces retook Sukhum, the carcass of the old government building has served as a grim reminder of the past violence, mainly because it is one of the few high-rise buildings in the city centre. Especially when night falls, it evokes a threatening beauty, not unlike the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, or something out of a 1930s cross between Tim Burton’s Batman and Citizen Kane.
An empty socle in front of the building is all that remains of the Soviet era Lenin statue. The square is now commonly used for driving lessons.
Filed under: Abkhazia, Photography, architecture, sukhum
12 December 2012 • 8:00 am 0
Despite the presence of so many ruins, Shushi is — at least to a visitor from outside — a very peaceful town. Free standing walls are covered by swathes of blackberries.
The contrast between the renovated cathedral and the ruins of the remaining mosques is striking. At least authorities are safeguarding the structures against complete collapse. Preserving and restoring mosques in Nagorno Karabakh and churches in Azerbaijan is a form of cooperation that all sides should agree on — even while political negotiations remain fruitless.
The photos are from July 2010, the situation may have changed in the meantime.
Filed under: Nagorno Karabakh, Photography
5 March 2011 • 5:11 pm 0
The photo was taken in Yerevan last August, outside a post office.
For those unfamiliar: TNT is a global mail and express company centred in the Netherlands. They introduced their slogan sure we can at the time of the 2008 American Presidential campaign, but claim to have come up with it before Barack Obama introduced his Yes We Can.
The map beneath the slogan outlines Armenia and its provinces (in white) and, suggestively, Nagorno-Karabakh (in grey), speckled with dots indicating the main towns and cities. There is one dot which falls outside the map. This is Aşağı Ağcakəndit, known to Armenians as Shahumian, which is claimed by Nagorno-Karabakh but controlled by Azerbaijan. Interestingly, the map follows the de facto border, perhaps so as not to suggest that TNT can deliver anything to there.
Filed under: Armenia, Cartography, Nagorno Karabakh, Photography, aşağı ağcakəndit, map, obama, shahumian, sure we can, tnt, yerevan, yes we can
