"Shakh Aivazov has been working in Georgia for many years and with his highly professional works, has greatly contributed to the documentation of the 1980s and 1990s — some of the most difficult epochs in our region’s history. This year’s traditional Alexander Roinashvili Honorary Prize is deservedly awarded to Shakh Aivazov by the Ministry of Culture,” wrote Beso Khaindrava, the founder of Kolga Tbilisi Photo, a platform for international photographers and curators in its 14th year, in the 2015 festival catalogue.
Lika Mamatashvili, Curator at Tbilisi’s History Museum, wrote: "His photos depict the cruelty and mercilessness of war to its full extent — whether it is a naive, childish, and surprised look or many tortured dead bodies, a horror show in the spirt of combat, or the aggressive mood of mass gatherings. Shakh Aivazov is of Azerbaijani descent. He was born and raised in Tbilisi. The 2015 Alexander Roinashvili Prize for the outstanding merits in the development of Georgian photography goes to Shakh Aivazov for documenting war […] and portraying reality.”
Named in honour of Alexander Roinashvili, widely considered to be Georgia’s first photographer in 1865, documentary photographer and curator Dina Oganova also adds her own thoughts about Aivazov. "Every war is catastrophic and he […] shows us photos of the times we should never ever return to,” she wrote. "People [ask him] why [he does] not take colour photos of the wars.” The reason, Oganova notes is because Aivazov considers conflict always to be black and white "because it takes away all the colourful things around us.”
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