daydreams artist II - Mano Svanidze

Mornin' everyone,

today we'd like to tell you a bit more about Mano Svanidze, whose photographs we're presenting as part of "daydreams" as a projection.

Mano has been taking photos since an early age. Photography is a very personal experience for her and the subjects of her photographs are often her family and friends, and the people she meets during her travels. She attempts to capture the world  around her and show it in a way that others may not have noticed.

As Mano says:

I'm someone who has a heartbeat in the throat when she takes photos.

In childhood I believed that I could change the world. Then I have changed myself.

Once, my friend was trying to justify social indifference with an argument that a person’s belief system alters by the changes that come with growth: in childhood everyone believes that they will change the world. Then they believe that they can change their country. Time by time they think about the changes that can be done in their families. And at last the only hope that they are left with is to change themselves. In 2009 I bought a soviet camera Zenit E, with which I discovered that I could still change something. I have the feeling that with taking pictures I go through this process once again, but from the ending.

Mano also believes that photography can help bring together people from different backgrounds and that it helps her discover things that otherwise wouldn't be available to her:

One year ago, I participated in one project called “Youth Peace Express”. The goal of this project was to alleviate the situation between the two sides that were affected by conflict. 20 young people were chosen from both sides. We went for a travel together on a bus in different countries. I took pictures. There isn't any kind of communication between Georgian and Ossetian youth. We don’t know how they live, what they worry about, what they think about, what are their problems, what they dream about... We didn’t know anything except that general information, which we get from some people or TV. and I took photos. about us.

Before I started travelling, I was working at a hostel, where people were bringing their countries, loves and fears, and they were leaving them in my photos. There I discovered that “Suliko” (a prominent Georgian song) goes very well with Malaysian folklore; that in Poland there lives a girl who loves Chopin, lomography and drinking tea on the roof like me. I found out that in Iran there lives a boy who believes that fireflies aren’t bugs. I found out that the world is not as far as I have believed previously.

This is how and why I got poisoned with photography.

You can find Mano's photographs on her page and on Behance.