Davit Patatishvili
Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi is anything but organized in the normal grid layout of most cities. No mathematical arcs of a Paris or numeral grids of a New York. But it is exactly because of this that it is one of the most strikingly original cities in the world. An almost organic layout reminiscent of a flower. Truly where East meets West. It is with this backdrop that Davit Patatishvili sees the shapes and multicultural city that inspires his work. That and a simple Nikon F80. (N80 in the US)
20 Bucks, a Nikon F80 and a Roll of Film
Born in 1996, and only armed with a $20 Nikon F80, (an N80 in the US), and the cheapest color film locally available, which is Kodak Colorplus, he is producing images that are actually quite saturated and fairly grainless. His color palette is actually more colorful than most users of Colorplus or C200. He has almost been able to coax a “Portra-like” quality out of the film. His present project, “A Rare Hike on The Circle”, is a photo book combining personal relationships and observed objects in a series that seems diametrically opposed, but is in fact an interwoven story line that makes sense.
A Lab Scanner
However, he depends on a lab at the moment, with most images scanned with a Fujifilm SP800. He would like to delve deeper into the scanning process to accentuate the angles that provide the “illusion” of the ‘Circle’ that creates that perfect hidden symmetry. While he does consider the chemical processing important, it is the subtleties of the scanning process that he attributes great importance to.
Davit Patatishvil proves one thing to all around him; you can use a $1000 Nikon FM3A camera or $20 Nikon F80 camera, but when it comes to 35mm film, the playing field is pretty level. And while Georgia is a well visited country by world journalists, it is rare we get to see it through the eyes of a native Georgian film photographer. Check out his Instagram link below for more of his images. Find Nikon F80