Henri Cartier-Bresson. Sunday on the Banks of the Seine, France. 1938. Gelatin silver print, printed 1947, 9 1/8 x 13 11/16" (23.3 x 34.8 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, Gift of the photographer. © 2009 Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum,Courtesy Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson
Each of the photographers, with their differing approaches, interests and voices, has documented varying aspects of a new, and emerging Georgia, a country that faces a future as a part of the European Union, leaving behind the heavy shadow of the Soviet past.
Whilst some of the images in Georgian Spring: A Magnum Journal, such as those by Parr, are rather predictable, the overall content with its mix of black and white humanist photojournalism, like that of Franck, or the more contemporary approaches as practiced by Power and Soth, along with images from Magnum’s vast archive, by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Patrick Zachmann, and Christina Garcia Rodero, combine to create a unique and insightful social document.
Image Nino Likuchova (’Miss Georgia 2007’), Batumi, March 2009 by Alec Soth.
Georgian Spring: A Magnum Journal, is published by Chris Boot, £30.
Working in the tradition of Edward Weston, Paul Strand, Anton Bruehl, and Henri Cartier-Bresson, Outerbridge captured what he found in vivid and dramatic color, that today, over half a century later are as bright and innovative as the day they where taken.
Image Woman with Turquoise Dress, Laguna Beach, California, c.1952.
Paul Outerbridge: New Color Photographs from Mexico and California, 1948-1955 is published by Nazraeli Press, $50.
You can feel the feeling of the picnic - the glug glug of the wine and the bubbling of digestion....
But is it a picture on which we hang our impossible dreams - of perfect days, and perfect community?
