Her genuine portrayal of reality is very well expressed in her documentation of the villages of Georgia, where one can clearly see the hardships their inhabitants go through and their living conditions – you can get a wider picture of the country’s current situation as well. Having started with her own village, Natela travelled to multiple regions of Georgia and shot life as it is. Initially, she was using black and white film and later switched to a digital camera. Film or colour, Grigalasgvili’s photography is characterized by honesty, reality, compassion, and simplicity.
Several years ago, Natela also started photo clubs in three different regions of Georgia to introduce the people living in villages to the medium of photography. After winning various local and international prizes, in 2013, her photograph The Son of a Fisherman was chosen for the Your Shot category by National Geographic. But whether she’s portraying rural life in Georgia or a road trip to visit Husayn’s grave (Muhammad’s grandson), her pictures are powerful in their nature and speak for themselves. But we wanted to know more, so we got a chance to speak with her about her hometown country, photography as a means of survival in hard times, Doukhobors prophecies, and hope.