Guram Tsibakashvili is a photographer who works in both Street and Documentary Photography as well as Fine Art Photography genres. His works create a voluminous photo-documentation of the turning points in the history of Georgia in the 1990s and the socio-political and creative life of Tbilisi. together with his associates, he initiated the project of a Visual Repository in 1985; These photo reports depict the capital of Georgia during the collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent civil wars as well as simultaneous activities of the Tbilisi artistic groups comprising the artists’ portraits and their everyday life. “Photography is a visual memory” – says Tsibakashvili – “if we compare it to writing, it is almost the same as a note or remark”.
Guram Tsibakashvili graduated from the Faculty of Chemistry at the Tbilisi State University in 1982. At the end of the 80s, he started making documentary photos depicting the streets of Tbilisi, at the same time creating pop-art style collages. In 1985, he was already a self-taught professional.
Tsibakashvili studied photography theory in his alma mater in 1990-94; In 1991, he started giving lectures in the field of photography. After the formation of the Free Press in Georgia, he collaborated with diverse newly established newspapers, for which he made photographs.
Guram Tsibakashvili – a member of the Union of Independent Journalists, a member of the Union of Georgian Artists, and the Union of Photo-Artists, is a participant in about 60 group exhibitions. In addition, he has held 20 personal shows and published articles on photography and contemporary art. He made his name with photo series: “Ulysses” (1988), “Seedlings” (1994), “Explanations” (2002), “Chewing Girls” (2002) and others.
Tsibakhashvili’s works are preserved in the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow and Thessaloniki as well as in private collections in Germany, the USA, Amsterdam, and Tbilisi.
Publishing house “Artanuji” has issued three albums of Tsibakhashvili’s photos within the framework of the series “Also For Reading”, which chronologically combines photo stories from the 1980s, 90s, and the new millennium.
