Capturing Marginality: The Social Role of Photography in the Wake of Rapid Urban Development in Batumi, Adjara

Abstract

This article examines the social role of photographic images in relation to the rapidly changing urban space of Batumi, Adjara. I argue that although photographic images selectively freeze certain moments of the past and render them stable, they simultaneously highlight the ambiguous aspects of the present and capture the socially marginal positions of their authors. I analyze how this tension plays out among a middle-aged and elderly generation of Soviet photographers in Batumi who, by capturing the past through their photographs, try to position themselves in an uncertain present and imagine their future(s).