EurasiaNet Civil Society - Georgia: Remembering Alexander Klimchuk

CIVIL SOCIETY

GEORGIA: REMEMBERING ALEXANDER KLIMCHUK
12/26/08
A EurasiaNet Tribute

Click the photo to view a slideshow of a selection of Alexander Klimchuk's work. (Photo by Timo Vogt)

Alexander Klimchuk’s death still seems unreal. No matter how tense or crazed the situation, Alexander was always there.

Alexander had drive, but he also had a sense of humor. A sharply wry sense of humor. Whether photographing disco group Boney M performing in South Ossetia, or a Georgian presidential candidate posing in a bean-bag chair, it was what contributed to much of his work for EurasiaNet. He could see the ironic in Georgia’s political life, and the whimsical in its everyday life.

His sense of humor was infectious. It not only made working with Alexander a pleasure, but it opened your eyes to the subtle oddities of news stories that might otherwise go unnoticed.

A seasoned journalist, he depicted life in Georgia as it is - the ridiculous along with the tragic, the inspirational along with the mundane. He understood that those combinations are what make Georgia a good story.

He also had the advantage of being part of two worlds - a tbiliseli of Ukrainian heritage who spoke Georgian as well as Russian, a combination that sometimes took ethnic Georgians by surprise. "I was born here," he’d respond with a laugh. "I am Georgian."

Alexander began working for EurasiaNet during President George W. Bush’s 2005 visit to Tbilisi, and went on to cover stories ranging from the November 7, 2007, protest crackdown to Abkhazia’s Upper Kodori Gorge. But his work was not limited to EurasiaNet alone. Apart from shooting for ITAR-TASS and other photo services, he also co-founded his own photo agency, Caucasus Images.

That sense of entrepreneurship meant that he was always where a story was likely to break.

Two days before his death, Alexander and I traveled to Georgian-controlled South Ossetia with a group of diplomats. On the way back, Alexander joked that we should sit at the rear of the press van since traffic accidents - in this case, a reference to Ossetian separatist fighters -- usually strike the front of a car.

Sadly, it was a joke that would turn on us all.

On August 8, the first day of Georgia’s war with Russia, Alexander and Giga Chikhadze, a reporter who had once worked briefly for EurasiaNet, were fatally shot near a South Ossetian checkpoint in Tskhinvali. Not hearing from Alexander, always a reliable filer, was the first tip-off that something had gone badly wrong; two days later, we knew the truth.

The images presented here are a tribute to Alexander not only as a photojournalist, but as a person. To his energy and love of life, to his pluck and persistence. Thank you for all you gave of yourself, Alexander. You are missed.

Editor's Note: Elizabeth Owen is the Caucasus news editor for EurasiaNet. She is based in Tbilisi, Georgia.

The Central Eurasia Project aims, through its website, meetings, papers, and grants, to foster a more informed debate about the social, political and economic developments of the Caucasus and Central Asia. It is a program of the Open Society Institute-New York. The Open Society Institute-New York is a private operating and grantmaking foundation that promotes the development of open societies around the world by supporting educational, social, and legal reform, and by encouraging alternative approaches to complex and controversial issues.

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