SALT Editions: "The hidden life of Georgia: interview with Natela Grigalashvili"

An experience of taking up photography via cinema, becoming the first female photojournalist in Georgia and adapting to capital city life are among topics covered in an interview with prized photographer Natela Grigalashvili by online magazine SALT Editions.

The webzine's Carlotta Centonze talked to the award-winning creative this month after encountering her work two years ago. The interview went over Grigalashvili's introduction to the media form, her work with the lens and more.

The creative told Centonze how she was inadvertently introduced to photography as a prerequisite for becoming a cinematographer, her initial subject of interest.

[I]n the end, I could not study cinematography [due to expenses and] I stayed with photography but nowadays I’m happy it went like this. I love to communicate through my photos and I think I have more creative freedom than I would have had as a cinematographer," Grigalashvili notes in the interview.

Elements of photography like communication with its subjects, and Grigalashvili's long-term approach to producing projects is also discussed in the exchange.

She also tells of her story of moving from her quiet countryside village to the bustling urban reality of Tbilisi and finding it difficult to adapt.

I felt really lonely and I started missing my home village and the people who lived there. I started going back to my village, Tagveti, every time I had a chance and started photographing everything there" - Natela Grigalashvili

The creative, who was awarded third prize of the 2019 Direct Look contest for her series of locals leaving mountainous villages of Georgia's Adjara province, also shares the experience of women artists having to do their work in parallel to unpaid domestic labour at home, and more.

Read the full story here.