Back to Georgia
Steven Weinberg is still chasing down the future. In our Legends story he made clear his desire to "capture a world in changes from a vantage point well ahead of the curve." His concern today is still moments in history "when what was is turning into what's going to be."
A particular interest is the Republic of Georgia. An exhibit of Steve's Georgia photography was shown at the National Picture Gallery in Tbilisi, the Republic's capital, in November, 2004. Presented by the U.S. Embassy and the Georgian Ministry of Culture, the images depicted ten years of transition and key events in the country's turbulent history. The theme of the show was the parallels between the 15th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the first anniversary of Georgia's Rose Revolution, the 2003 uprising that led to the displacement of then-president Eduard Shevardnadze, who had governed Georgia since 1992 and had been the country's president since 1995. After parliamentary elections that were widely considered to be rigged, anti-government demonstrators took to the streets of the capital. Soon almost every major city in the country was involved. Shevardnadze was forced to resign shortly after demonstrators carrying roses seized the parliament building.
Steve's interest in Georgia stems from 1995, when he accompanied a medical team that was updating Soviet-era hospitals to western standards. After documenting the team's work, he realized that there were more stories to tell. "I just kept going back on my own because I saw there was a link between Georgia and the other former Soviet bloc countries I'd been shooting in," Steve says. "I was especially interested in these nations as they went through their social, economic and political transition from post-Soviet to the introduction of the Western consumer market." His goal was to capture in one image "as much of the transitional phases between one system and the other as possible." Steve has always been intrigued by how local politics react in transitional situations. "Do they overshadow the big changes taking place in the people's lives? The big changes seem to have a momentum of their own, and local politics attempts to deal with that momentum. It seems to me that there are particular phases that countries have to go through in their development, cycles that always seem to breed corruption and graft before another economy is introduced."
Steve sees Georgia as "a cauldron of geo-political stresses. Larger nations are using Georgia for their interests. I don't know that the situation will ever come to a conclusion. Georgia seems to be a country always annexed by a larger nation-state. Russia certainly wants to keep it in their backyard, to not quite let go."
Politically and culturally, it's a divided country. "You'll see a municipal bus in Tbilisi with Stalin's picture on the side, and it might not be there just because the older people are recalling him. It could also be younger people embracing him. They say they consider him 'brave,' despite his politics and the genocide that took place under his rule. He's looked up to as a heroic figure, probably because the recent and current economy is a shambles. The country as a whole tends to grasp at whatever promises, or whatever seems able, to solve the current problem."
When we spoke with Steve in late March he was preparing to travel to the Republic of Belarus, the last remaining Soviet dictatorship, as well as return to Georgia to continue documenting that country's evolving story. "You can learn not only about the country but also about the nature of politics there a lot faster because so many diplomats and government people fly in and out. There are forces at work, and something is always happening."
Camera and Lenses
After two years of using the D100, Steve has switched to the new D200. His Nikkors of choice are the 14mm f/2.8D ED AF Nikkor, 17-35mm f/2.8D ED-IF AF-S Zoom-Nikkor, 28-70mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S Zoom-Nikkor and 70-200mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor. He also carries the TC-20E II (2x) AF-S, AF-I Teleconverter
