EYES FULL OF ARMENIAN SORROW
By Nino Gvalia
The Messenger, Georgia
Oct 3 2005
Yuri Mechitov’s photo project at the Caucasian House
Yuri Mechitov
The portraits of Armenians from Tbilisi
Until October 5, the Caucasian House at 20 Galaktion Tabidze St. is
hosting an exhibition of locally renowned photographer Yuri Mechitov.
While entering the exhibition hall, your eyes may alight at a series of
portraits of different people – a shoemaker, an artist, a journalist,
a TV operator, a film director, a photographer – in a word; various
faces with individual life stories.
But what these people have common is that they are Armenians living in
Tbilisi. In addition, as the photographer noted, all his photo-heroes
have “Armenian sorrow” in their eyes. This sorrow, he says, is by
and large a product of the tragic history of the Armenian people,
though some of it is due to the rapid changes underway in their
native Tbilisi.
According to Yuri Mechitov, he has been working on this project for
approximately three years. As the photographer said, inspiration came
from the Armenian 19-century artist Akop Vovnatanian, who used to
paint Tbilisians. Consequently, this collection is entitled Armenians
from Tbilisi – dedication to Akop Vovnatanian.
“My mother was a true Armenian, but father had a more Georgian
orientation,” said Mechitov, adding that he is quite upset that
some want to “plant the seeds of animosity” against Armenians and
show these people from a negative perspective. “These people live in
Tbilisi and are patriots of the city, so with this collection I want
to express my respect to these Armenians,” added the photographer.
While asked to comment about this exhibition, artist and art
critic Nino Zaalishvili noted that she knows many people from this
series and has seen their portraits mostly in paintings, but not in
photographs. “These Armenians are real residents of Tbilisi and I
was very curious to see their portraits from Yuri Mechitov’s artistic
viewpoint,” Zaalishvili said.