Mother, Father, FED-4 and Me
Arsen Kordzaia, Anna Kordzaia-Samadashvili
- Translator: Natalia Bukia-Peters
- Cover: Tornike Lortkipanidze
- Publishing House: Indigo Publishing
- Year of publication: 2025
- Price: 80.00 Gel
The child burts into laughter. Others laugh along with her. An if you ask me, that's exactly as it should be. Children should laugh as much as life allows them to. Because one day, they will be thrown out of paradise – and that's the day when childhood ends.
In this bilingual Georgian–English photo book, the family journeys of Anna Kordzaia-Samadashvili are preserved. The portraits and landscapes photographed by her father, Arsen Kordzaia, in the late 1960s reveal not only their subjects but also the photographer’s sensibility—his way of seeing and relating to the world. What he values most is what he captures: the people he looks at return his gaze, responding with the same emotion. As a result, the entire collection is imbued with a shared sense of intimacy.
As Anna studies these photographs, she comes to understand that what she remembers is real. The film records not only what is seen, but also how a child learns to look. When leafing through the book, we find ourselves in an uncanny arrangement: Anna has her back to us, for she is looking at her childhood; we look at Anna, and through Anna at what she had left.
As Anna studies these photographs, she comes to understand that what she remembers is real. The film records not only what is seen, but also how a child learns to look. When leafing through the book, we find ourselves in an uncanny arrangement: Anna has her back to us, for she is looking at her childhood; we look at Anna, and through Anna at what she had left.
