JONATHAN CHERRY: What got you started with photography?

GIORGI NERBIERIDZE: My elder brother and a huge attraction to color. At first, all my photographs were documentation of my daily life with absolutely no artistic touch, a few years passed, some things changed, I grew up and fell in love with natural film texture on my photographs, now I have this kind of disease: holding any digital camera I can not imagine making anything artistic with it. I’ve tried many photography genres and styles, now I’m into this (what you see here today), who knows, I may change my mind and field of vision again.

JC: Any emerging artists inspiring you at the moment?

GN: I have no idea how or why, but almost all my friends are older then me, some of them were into photography way before then I was, they taught me a lot, shared their experience and inspired me. (David Meskhi, Leonid Mujiri and others) I browse a lot of photography these days, and some very interesting photographers catch my eye way too often, like: Sylvain Emmanuel, Peter Sutherland, Hasisi Park, Joe Skilton and Jeff Lucker .

JC: Whats your current project all about?

GN: I work on several series for now, most of them include young people around me, how they sleep, party, drink eat, fight, bleed or die. Here I try to be slightly more artistic, and mix it with my personal reality. Also made set of gift boxes with 9x13cm prints in it, on sale for €20.

JC: Where are you currently living and how is it shaping you?

GN:Based in a post soviet country of Georgia, this place used to be and I guess still remains a fascinating mixture of Asian (from east), European (from west), Soviet/Russian (from north) and Armenian (from south) cultures. Think about how inspiring that can be. I have times when I’m influenced by each one of these four cultures, sometimes by all of them. These last days I’m very into Soviet stuff, because government does everything to erase that “dark” memories when Georgia was a part of USSR. Most of the soviet buildings, monuments and artworks are being destroyed. I have a huge admiration to soviet aesthetics and feel sad about ruining them.

JC: One piece of advice to recent photography graduates?

GN: No matter what or who you shoot, that photographs should remain your “self portraits”, let the viewers see YOU through your photos. Any artwork you create has to be a reflection like a mirror you look in.

JC: Any big plans for 2012?

GN: Some, planning a trip to Berlin and Istanbul, drink some beer, play drums and sleep a lot. Never stop taking photos, and read more about the Queen Elizabeth II (for a degree I’m in need of)

JC: Favourite tree?

GN: Eucalyptus and Burundanga.