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About this series
Mariam Amurvelashvili's photobook Endless Questions was published by Italian publisher Damiani in 2016. In 2022 Amurvelashvili released 16 of them as NFT on Foundation. The series is an intimate look into the world of the photographer's family, her children and surroundings. The series has been captured on medium format film and is not about the beauty of childhood, but about the complexity and ambivalence of growing up. Looking carefully at the photographs they reveal that they are like answers to different questions of life.
Interview
Endless Questions captures the dynamics and specifics of social relationships within your family. Has this series also been a search for your own identity?
I think that this series isn’t only about my children, even though I photographed them. As you mentioned, it is also about myself and the environment that I grew up with. I think that in the process of making this series, I went back and reflected my own childhood and with it the traumas, phobias, fears, hopes and expectations I had back then. At the same time, I sent my children a message, that whatever happened, whichever path they would choose in life, I would always be by their side. Georgia is a quite traditional country, where it is common for several generations to live together. Because of this, children and young adults have less private space for themselves, which leads them feeling restricted and not expressing themselves enough. Furthermore, after choosing the western course, my country experienced major political instabilities, thus leading many young people to leave the homeland and never come back. All this political and personal turbulences had a big impact on me and there was a period when I also thought to leave, but after having children I realized, that I need to stay here and play my part for changing my country, which only the new generation can achieve.
What were your reasons to choose black-and-white photography for this series?
This was a period, when I distanced myself from documentary photography and tried to find out, which photographic language I wanted to use, what to shoot, what would I express by shooting it. This took time, which led to a time out in my life, when I concentrated to find my path. I reread Ronald Barthes’s “Camera Lucida”. Barthes’s interpretation of his mother’s childhood photo really stuck in my mind. I started to think whether the value of a photograph was measured solely for its social or political significance or could a portraiture (maybe of unknown) individual also carry major significance. I deeply thought about this and tried to visualize Barthes’s mothers’ childhood photo. Is it possible when looking at a portrait to see something, which can be considered as a soul or an essence of the person, especially in childhood photos, where they are free from life’s burdens. This project was a search for finding this essence and it could only have been black and white to concentrate more on the meaning rather than color.
After finishing the project did you experience a shift in terms on how you see your own family? Did it change something in you?
‘Endless Questions’ is an ode to the new generation in the family. This was also the time when my daughter started to draw intensively. We would exchange artistic drives and ideas. During the making of this book, I realigned priorities in my life, slowed down the rhythm of shooting and pointed my camera from real and visible to more emotional and psychological factors. As a mother and a woman I completely understood, that my children’s path is their own and they have nothing to do with my childhood and my feelings.
Did the photographs answer one of your questions of life? Which one?
I think that my children answered a lot of questions far better than I did. For me life is a journey, where we get a lot of questions and only few of them are answered. The universe is a mystery and finding all the answers is impossible. The answer that you found today, could become a question tomorrow. The most important thing is the process and the knowledge and joy we experience when creating.
What are your current and future projects?
I am working on several projects all on medium format film. I feel these are also personal projects and I won’t reveal them for now.
Artist Bio
Mariam Amurvelashvili has been exhibited at various photo festivals and exhibitions around the globe. Her photographs have been collected by Villa Pérochon France, Tbilisi photography and multimedia museum, and can be found in private collections. Mariam Amurvelashvili’s work was shortlisted for the Lucie Foundation Scholarship in 2011 and in 2019 she was a nominee for the International photography grant. In 2021 she was shortlisted for Bartur photo award.
Photographer: Mariam Amurvelashvili
Instagram: @mariamamurvelashvili
Twitter: @MAmurvelashvili
Foundation: Endless Questions
Photos copyright Mariam Amurvelashvili
Supported by Jenny Metaverse.
The Jenny collection contains almost 200 works of modern and contemporary art.
DRAWLIGHTS | 1/1 – one post/one photographer, weekly. Off-chain and on-chain. By Peter Nitsch, lens-based artist, a member of Jenny Metaverse, RawDAO and lifetime Member of the Royal Photographic Society of Thailand.