President Photographer

From 2013 to 2018, I served as the personal photographer to the fourth President of Georgia, Giorgi Margvelashvili. It was an incredible experience and a defining period in my career. I took the liberty of capturing the unofficial, unguarded moments beyond the formal protocol, creating an alternative portrait of the President.

There is an established international standard for photographing political leaders as part of official protocol. Photographers typically document world leaders' meetings and state visits, adhering to similar guidelines. However, beyond these formalities, I sought to highlight the personal, human side of the country's highest official.

This role carried immense responsibility, where every second mattered. More than just a job, it was an opportunity to contribute to the photographic chronicle of Georgia’s contemporary history.

I was given complete creative freedom to capture the moments I found significant. That trust made my work more fulfilling. Having prior experience as a member of the personal photographers' team for Georgia’s second President, Eduard Shevardnadze (1996-2002), I understood the weight of this responsibility. Back then, I worked with professionals who supplied photographic materials to various publications, both in Georgia and internationally.

During the working process, my only focus was the shot. The President fully trusted me and supported my work in every possible way. Over the years, I covered all of his official visits and countless meetings in numerous countries. I also became the first female photographer in Georgia’s history to serve as the President’s personal photographer. During the pre-election campaign alone, I captured 142,533 photos, and the five-year archive of his presidency is nearly impossible to quantify.

Alongside the President, I also photographed the First Lady, Maka Chichua, both during joint visits and separately. It is widely recognized that the spouses of world leaders play a crucial role in their political and professional lives, and this was no exception. This dynamic is evident in many of the images from their travels. Among them, the public particularly admired the photos from the President’s final official visit to France, where he and the First Lady were photographed together at the Orsay Museum. It has been said that those images conveyed far more than words could, fulfilling my mission of creating alternative portraits of both the President and the First Lady.