Plein in Tiflis met het standbeeld van Michail Semjonovitsj Vorontsov, gelegen aan de militaire weg van Georgië c. 1890 - 1900

Curator: This photogravure print, taken by Dimitri Ivanovitch Ermakov around 1890-1900, depicts Plein in Tiflis, now Tbilisi, Georgia, featuring the statue of Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov. Editor: It’s fascinating how a simple street corner can feel so weighted with history, so... solid. Like a stage set waiting for a play that's already been written. The dust, the architecture—it’s all sepia-toned theatre. Curator: Observe how the photographic method emphasizes a structured view. The statue is centrally placed, and there’s an assertive use of orthogonal lines in the square. Ermakov meticulously captures the architectural details and uses light to define the forms. This gives us not just an image but an essay on spatial organization. Editor: I am arrested by the chainlink around the statue. It's strangely contemporary in its functional directness, given the age. I can imagine people sitting around it talking and smoking cigarettes as time ambles by. It gives me a nostalgic ache for a place I've never seen. Curator: That sensation is not misplaced. Ermakov's artistic intentions are complex. He provides ethnographic document alongside formal portraiture—giving dignity through the photographic record but maintaining objective distance, not unlike an orientalist scholar carefully cataloging knowledge. Editor: The photograph invites us to see Tbilisi as more than a place. It suggests a story—of Russian influence in Georgia, yes, but also of lives lived amidst empires and monuments. The light kissing the statue contrasts with shadows that invite mystery. Makes me want to know those stories. Curator: Agreed. It encapsulates the tensions within the city between tradition and modernization, empire and independence through pure composition. The receding road and meticulously depicted details creates a narrative, drawing the viewer into considerations of space and identity. Editor: It does invite a curious form of reflective wandering—imagining sounds and lives swirling in that space a century or more ago, as history stood still for a single, beautiful moment, caught by Ermakov’s lens.