Niko Djologua clears up after cleaning and bagging this years hazelnut harvest. Tagiloni, Gali, Abkhazia
A religious shrine in the home of a Mingrelian Georgian family in Gali.
A woman walks though the dilapidated streets of Gali town.
A Mingrelian Georgian woman waits to sell a piglet at Gali market.
Niko Djologua takes a dip in the Ingury River which, marks the border between Georgia and Abkhazia.
Children during an English language class at one of the two still functioning primary schools in the town of Gali.
A Georgian man, who travelled to Abkhazia the previous day from Russia, waits for an emergency car to arrive to take him to hospital in the capital Sukhumi while his anxious daughter looks on. Having suffered a heart attack the local doctors decided he needed proper treatment in the capital. The one functioning hospital in the whole of the Gali region is only able to deal with minor injuries and illnesses since being destroyed during the war in the early 90's.
Hazelnuts are stored under a bed in a small shack where 3 brothers spend a week every summer harvesting their hazelnut crop.
Georgian farmers in the village of Perwelli Gali plough their land before planting their spring crops.
Mirab Lejava shakes the branches of his hazelnut trees, so that the nuts fall down and can be collected by hand. Gali and its Georgian Mingrelian inhabitants are renowned for their hazelnuts, which fetch very high prices in both Georgia and Russia. However, farmers such a Mirab live in fear during the harvest season when thieves regularly attack and rob peoples crops and money. Something they claim the authorities do little to prevent.
Julie Megeneishvili arranges bunches of flowers to sell at her newly opened shop in the town of Gali.
Flowers grown in garden are used to brighten up the home of Megeneishvil family during Easter.
Mirab Lejava is helped by his wife after a long day collecting hazelnuts from his land in the mountains nearby.
Mingrelian Georgian women sell fresh hazelnuts on market day in the town of Gali. Tighter border controls imposed by Russian and Abkhazian forces aimed at stemming the flow of people and money into Georgia mean that the hazelnut farmers are now forced to sell their produce to Abkhazian buyers at the market in Gali. After acquiring the nuts at a very low price the Abkhaz buyers then take their haul to the border with Russia where they can sell them on at a much higher price.
Transport is a major issue for the people of Gali. Most are too poor to afford a good enough car to withstand the potholed roads and there is very little in the way of public transport. As a result people often walk for hours from their villages to the town of Gali. Gali, Abkhazia.
Lamara Shengelia, 78, takes a break from her work on the family farm in the village of Tagiloni.
Tamas Jivanja takes his crippled 16-year-old son Romeo for a dip in a stream in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains.
Mirab Lejava is helped by his wife after a long day collecting hazelnuts from his land in the mountains nearby.
85-year-old Ivan Djologua and his neigbour, Sveda, drink vodka after lunch in the village of Tagiloni.
Doctor Thsira Chaprwa ,from Gali’s only functioning hospital, treats a sickly woman during a home visit in the village of Perwelli Gali. Due to remoteness, lack of transport and bad roads many vulnerable people in Gali cannot reach the hospital. As a result the hospital have a 24 hour response team on call ready to reach remote villages such Perwelli Gali in the old Russian military van that doubles as an ambulance.
Tengo Inalishvili’s mother makes a spicy paste from dried chilies at the Inlaishvili family home in the village of Rechxi.
Members of the Dadishqeliani family visit the grave of a relative, who died the previous year, on Easter Sunday.
Georgian teenagers play football at the dilapidated stadium in the centre of Gali town.
Zaza Katalandze and Tamas Jivanja stop to fix Zaza’s car after driving through a small river.
A Mingrelian woman prays during a service at Gali’s only functioning church. Since the war with Georgia Abkhazian authorities have not allowed Georgian priests to remain in the region, instead an Abkhazian priest from a nearby town runs the Church in Gali.
Ivan Djologua sleeps in the afternoon.
Friends and neighbors celebrate Niko Djologua’s (left) 40th birthday at his families’ house in the village of Tagiloni in lower Gali, Abkhazia's border region with Georgia proper.
Fourteen-year-old Christina Djologua holds her 5 month old baby brother Gigi at the family home in the village of Tagiloni.