Sophie Berdzenishvili

"Now I’m here, on the land finally. My name is Sophie, living and working in Tbilisi (Georgia), in some boring job.

The start was here, trying to understand how to control my old soviet camera, a Zenit ET. The camera was a good weapon for me to tell my stories. I used to write stories, but found that telling them with a camera felt much more natural and interesting than with my pen.

I’ve never worked as a photographer, had any training or schooling - photography is a therapy; it helps me get to know myself better. Everything I do is a self portrait, my photos are a reflection of my mood, emotions and the world I live in maybe that’s why I never worked in a commercial field and can’t consider myself a photographer.

I used to get inspired with stories created in my mind or that I read in books, heard in songs or just from other people, daily recognition, living without the fear of reflecting my real self in photos helps me to live on and create as much as I can."

Once compared to Francesca Woodman, Sophie, sometimes the subject of her own images, uses surreal imagery to explore the concept of self and how it is projected to the world and how the world defines it.

Sophie often uses female models to try to conceptualise and question the role of women in society.

You can see more of Sophie's work here.