The National Archives of the Ministry of Justice of Georgia held the first photo exhibition of the photographer Nikoloz Sagaradze's collection on the glass negatives in May 2014.

The exposition was held in the exhibition hall of the Giorgi Leonidze Museum of Georgian Literature.

Up to 70 photos from Sagaradze's collection were presented at the exhibition, most of which were previously unknown to the broad society. Writers, actors, directors and public figures working in the 20th century Georgia are portrayed on them.

Nikoloz Sagaradze was born on May 1, 1877 in a small town of Khoni. He studied at the Kutaisi Gymnasium since 1898. At the age of 12 he became keen about photography, after he went along with his stepfather in the photo atelier of his son-in-law, Alexander Mikhailov.

His interest was insomuch huge that he stopped studying at the gymnasium, became Mikhailov's student, and then - his assistant. He worked at the "Central Atelier", located on Vorontsov Street in Kutaisi, until the 1930s. Likewise his teachers, Sagaradze was mainly engaged in studio photography. His atelier served the residents of Kutaisi, but at the same time, Sagaradze was photographing prominent public and cultural figures.

In 1947, Nikoloz Sagharadze granted up to 150 glass negatives and 15 photo albums, created in Alexander Mikhailov's photo atelier for decades, to the archive. Today, it is difficult to determine which of the Atelier photographers is the author of a particular photo: Alexander Mikhailov, Nikoloz Sagaradze or Melkon Kachukhashvili.

A catalog has been created for the exhibition, which includes information on Nikoloz Sagaradze's photo collection and the presented exhibits. See the electronic version of the catalog at the link: https://archive.gov.ge/ge/sametsniero-publikatsiebi/nikoloz-sagharadze-1

Curator of the exhibition: Nino Dzandzava.