My first impression of Georgia was a lasting one. I arrived two years ago without knowing anything about the place, only to find that its streets were crawling with tigers, wolves, bears and hippos.
These aren’t metaphors I’ll have you know. The animals had literally escaped the zoo on the day I arrived, and the police and the army were having a competition to hunt them in the streets. Or “liquidate” them as the Ministry of Internal Affairs called it. After a strange sequence of events, I find myself living here. And I can confirm that this former Soviet republic has been consistent in its levels of craziness. Which takes a lot, considering I arrived in a real-life version of Jumanji. In the time that I’ve lived here, I’ve realised that I like Georgia because of her mysterious beauty, but I love her because of her madness. I wrote about this for TheDifferent.tv. You can read it here: www.thedifferent.tv/the-tiger-of-tbilisi. I wrote and photographed a 10-day roadtrip feature exploring South Africa’s Zululand for the September issue of Go! and Weg magazines.
Ramble through the forests of Ithala, catch a tigerfish at Lake Jozini (test drive the 58-metre waterslide), spot a Pel’s fishing owl at Ndumo, snorkel in the estuaries of Kosi Bay, loaf on the beaches at Cape Vidal, hang out the rhinos at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi, wander through ancient battlefields at Dundee and go chasing waterfalls in the Drakensberg – all in a Toyota Corolla. On sale now. |
BLOGNews updates, back-stories and inner workings of ideas behind my photographs. Archives
May 2018
|