Filmmaker & Academic

Giorgi Gersamia was born on 7 September 1939 in Tbilisi, Georgia.

He studied at the Moscow Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), graduating from the Cinematography Faculty in 1963. He began his professional career as a cinematographer at Georgian Film Studio in 1963, where he worked for more than three decades, shooting over twenty feature and documentary films.

He joined the Georgian Cinematographers’ Union in 1968 and was awarded the title of Honoured Art Worker of Georgia in 1988. In 1989, he attained the professional rank of highest-category cinematographer. In 1999, he received Georgia’s Order of Honour for his contribution to national cinema.

In January 2019, the Academic Council of the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgia State University (TAFU) awarded Gersamia the title of Professor Emeritus in recognition of his contribution to Georgian cinema and photographic culture.

He was a Full Professor at TAFU from 2007. He developed and taught Anthology: A Cinematography Course for Student Cinematographers, published as a four-DVD educational series in 2010.

The Georgian Association for the History of Photography in the Caucasus

The original online Photomuseum grew out of Giorgi Gersamia’s research into the history of photography in Georgia and the Caucasus. In 2000, the Georgian Association for the History of Photography in the Caucasus received support from the Open Society–Georgia Foundation (OSGF) to establish the museum online at Photomuseum.org.ge.

The project grew from many years of archival research, fieldwork across Georgia and the Caucasus, and collaboration with institutions, private collectors and family archives.

Giorgi Gersamia’s legacy includes photographs he collected, photographs he made himself, and his research. His work also drew on the study of photographs held by museums, archives, libraries and private collectors.

This legacy remains the foundation of Photomuseum’s work. Inventory, identification and documentation are continuing. Public sharing depends on each photograph’s source, copyright and conditions of use.