Celebrated photo reporter, documentary photographer Giorgi Tsagareli dies at 73

Celebrated Georgian photo reporter and documentary photographer Giorgi Tsagareli, author of some of the most iconic works illustrating the 1990s civil war in Georgia, died late on Wednesday night at age 73.

The photojournalist worked for local news agencies and newspapers, capturing historic moments in the late years of the Soviet era and through the restoration of Georgian independence from the USSR.

The Georgian Public Broadcaster, which produced a documentary about Tsagareli in 2014, reported the late photographer had passed away hours after sharing some of his historical photographs on social media late on Wednesday evening.

The photographs, showing people and moments from the April 9, 1989 violent dispersal of peaceful protesters by Soviet troops in Tbilisi, were meant to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the momentous event in the modern Georgian history on Thursday.

Born in Tbilisi in 1947, Tsagareli took up documentary photography in the early 1980s and - as the decade grew in social unrest and ethnic conflict in the late years of the USSR and through its disintegration - used his lens to preserve moments from the tumultuous era.

The photo reporter covered events and people not only in Georgia but also in other zones of conflict in the South Caucasus, such as Nagorno-Karabakh.

Also covering subjects ranging from portraits of people undergoing social reintegration to autism, he is praised as "one of Georgia’s most prized documentary photographers" by fotografia.ge platform, where some of his works are featured.

Tsagareli was featured in personal and group displays in Georgia and abroad, including exhibitions at Vienna's Fotogalerie Wien in 1999.