3rd place
bronze star award
Hossein Fardinfard
georgia
title
The lost identity
Russian Doukhobors, As a Spiritual Christian religious group, they are unique in their practices of pacifism and rejection of modern materialism. This ideology led them to rebuff many Orthodox Church rituals in Russia, for which they were exiled in the 1840s out of Russia. They developed and supported their life through agriculture and cattle-herding. After the Soviet Union collapsed, they didn’t receive any attention from the government, therefore left their village and Armenians bought most of their houses. Doukhobors have a strict living condition in Georgia such as cold winters, no access to sweet water, gas and demolished road. Their job is only working in Armenians land.
The village is settled down by Armenians who had moved here in the early 80s from high mountains and Gumri region after an earthquake. In 2008 Georgian government decided to settle down Muslim in another district to stabilize tensions between Doukhobors and Armenian, but they did not succeed. Doukhobors are still immigrating to Russia. They believe that Armenian would take this land forever.
Muslim Georgians don’t have an acceptable condition in the village as well. They deal with a lot of problems in different fields. They lost most of their farmlands to Armenians and even cannot have their cemetery, though Doukhobors can have, this means they have to carry the dead bodies miles far from the village for burial. The useless complaints from Muslim Georgians to the government were a reason not to hesitate to find other opportunities in bigger cities and to leave the village.
While living in Georgia and working in a media art studio, I became interested in photography. Initially, I began taking pictures of my surroundings with my phone’s camera. After a while, I pursued the field of photography with a professional camera, and with my brother’s support, I began to learn and advance in this profession in a self-instructive manner. Since I consider the world around me from a realistic perspective, my photography subjects are affected by this viewpoint. Hence, first in the context of street photography and portraits and later in documentary photography, I began to record the grief, happiness, social actions, and problems in my surrounding community. Within two years of entering the world of professional photography, I have attained several awards and achievements in various international competitions, including the International Photography Award (IPA), Monochrome Photography Awards, The Independent Photographer, ND awards, Monovisions Photography Awards, All About Photo Awards, and more. Moreover, I have exhibited my work in several countries, including the United States, Greece, Germany, and Hungry.
I am currently working on several art-photography combination projects in a modern style, which are slightly different from my previous works.
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entry description
"The lost identity" is an ongoing documentary portrait series about an untold story of a tiny village in the country of Georgia where three ethnic groups live there and cannot stand each other: Russian Doukhobors, Muslim Georgians, and Christian Armenians.Russian Doukhobors, As a Spiritual Christian religious group, they are unique in their practices of pacifism and rejection of modern materialism. This ideology led them to rebuff many Orthodox Church rituals in Russia, for which they were exiled in the 1840s out of Russia. They developed and supported their life through agriculture and cattle-herding. After the Soviet Union collapsed, they didn’t receive any attention from the government, therefore left their village and Armenians bought most of their houses. Doukhobors have a strict living condition in Georgia such as cold winters, no access to sweet water, gas and demolished road. Their job is only working in Armenians land.
The village is settled down by Armenians who had moved here in the early 80s from high mountains and Gumri region after an earthquake. In 2008 Georgian government decided to settle down Muslim in another district to stabilize tensions between Doukhobors and Armenian, but they did not succeed. Doukhobors are still immigrating to Russia. They believe that Armenian would take this land forever.
Muslim Georgians don’t have an acceptable condition in the village as well. They deal with a lot of problems in different fields. They lost most of their farmlands to Armenians and even cannot have their cemetery, though Doukhobors can have, this means they have to carry the dead bodies miles far from the village for burial. The useless complaints from Muslim Georgians to the government were a reason not to hesitate to find other opportunities in bigger cities and to leave the village.
about the photographer
I was born in 1985 in Isfahan, Iran. After graduating from university in Tehran with an M.Sc degree in Geomorphology as well as a strong education in IT, I emigrated to the UAE, and after a short time, I resettled in the Caucasus region of Georgia, where I currently reside.While living in Georgia and working in a media art studio, I became interested in photography. Initially, I began taking pictures of my surroundings with my phone’s camera. After a while, I pursued the field of photography with a professional camera, and with my brother’s support, I began to learn and advance in this profession in a self-instructive manner. Since I consider the world around me from a realistic perspective, my photography subjects are affected by this viewpoint. Hence, first in the context of street photography and portraits and later in documentary photography, I began to record the grief, happiness, social actions, and problems in my surrounding community. Within two years of entering the world of professional photography, I have attained several awards and achievements in various international competitions, including the International Photography Award (IPA), Monochrome Photography Awards, The Independent Photographer, ND awards, Monovisions Photography Awards, All About Photo Awards, and more. Moreover, I have exhibited my work in several countries, including the United States, Greece, Germany, and Hungry.
I am currently working on several art-photography combination projects in a modern style, which are slightly different from my previous works.
back to gallery