Highways & Landscape Georgia 2024
This photo series took shape during a serendipitous road trip through the Caucasus. Serendipitous, because shortly after landing in Georgia we discovered that passenger trains were nearly nonexistent here – and the marshrutkas, the local minibuses weaving through the countryside, did little to inspire confidence. We chose the second-best option that presented itself: renting a car from our waiter’s cousin.
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The contrast between old and new roadways is perhaps nowhere more striking than in Georgia. While local drivers continue to navigate the crumbling remnants of Soviet-era asphalt, a newly constructed, fully electrified and illuminated highway steadily cuts through the landscape.
Very quickly, we developed two primary road fears during our journey: by day, massive potholes and unexpected speed bumps; by night, crossing cows and disoriented pedestrians.
Few places illustrate the effects of global connectivity – or the lack of it – as vividly as the Caucasus region. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia shifted from being part of a vast empire to an isolated periphery. With limited investment in road infrastructure, combined with a growing influx of second-hand cars from Western Europe, the country gained the unfortunate distinction of having one of the highest road-fatality rates per capita.
In 2010, significant “safety measures” were introduced, and the road situation slowly began to improve.
In recent years, international institutions have played a central role in reshaping Georgia’s transport sector. Owing to the country’s strategic position along the emerging “Middle Corridor” – a trade route between China and Europe – large-scale infrastructure projects such as the East–West Highway and the Batumi–Kutaisi connection have been funded by quasi-governmental institutions, including the European Investment Bank, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency.
Georgia’s roads reveal how infrastructure is shaped by outward-facing ambitions – economic, touristic, and geopolitical – rendering landscapes and space accessible, legible, and marketable.
