STEFFEN JUNGHANß
The Invisible Border

At the foot of the Caucasus, the small Georgian village Mejvriskhevi can be found. Nowadays, it can only be entered from the south. The reason for this is the region behind: a territory called South Ossetia which was the scene of a military conflict between Russia and Georgia in August 2008. As a result, South Ossetia, which according to international law is part of Georgia, has become almost completely isolated from the rest of the country. The Russian military is occupying this disputed territory until today.
The so-called Administrative Boundary Line which separates Georgia from South Ossetia cuts off Mejvriskhevi by east and north. Although you wouldn't find fencing and barbed wire here, you can not pass the border from either side. Due to that, Mejvriskhevi's relationship to its former neighbors in the area now occupied, has almost completely ceased to exist.
The people here try their best to pursue a normal life under unusual circumstances.

Author
Steffen is Berlin-based photographer with a great sense of curiosity for how other
people live. He is especially interested in the life of those, who find themselves in
extraordinary circumstances without receiving much attention.
For his work, he spends as much time as possible with his protagonists and always tries
to become a part of their lives - at least for a while. Although he considers himself to be a
documentary photographer, he is always subjective and his pictures are a testimony to his
sympathy for the portrayed people.
He worked in the film industry before commencing his photography study at the Neue Schule
Für Fotografie Berlin, where he graduated in 2015. Since then he has been working on several
longterm projects, the current one taking place in the small Caucasian republic of Georgia.

Website
https://www.steffenjunghanss.com/

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