Georgia’s Regions Through the Lens of Davit Kakabadze

This project brings together photographs taken between 1840 and 1930 that capture the distinctive character of Georgia’s regions. Through ethnographic portraits and environmental context, we encounter the visible differences in dress, gesture, and setting that defined local belonging.

Kakabadze’s lens does more than record faces — it reveals how geography shaped culture. The mountains, plains, courtyards, and village streets form an inseparable backdrop to the people who inhabited them. Together, these images preserve a layered map of Georgia’s cultural landscape before the homogenizing effects of modernization and Soviet transformation.

This collection invites viewers to explore the visual language of regional identity — where clothing, terrain, and community converge into a photographic archive of diversity.