Nika Pailodze: Telling stories of unrepeatable moments through street photography

Nika Pailodze: Telling stories of unrepeatable moments through street photography

“The street is like a stage, where different angles tell different stories,” says Georgia-based Nika Pailodze, who likens the street as a treasure trove of stories waiting to be captured and told. While his photography journey began with nature scenes and a borrowed camera, he eventually gravitated towards documenting everything that happened around him.

Later, he enrolled in a university program in literary studies, which helped him understand storytelling techniques and gave him a broader perspective when observing different subjects. This, coupled by his fascination for various forms of visual art, encouraged him to take his camera everywhere and photograph everything, from staged scenes to hikes and people out in the streets.

“Eventually, I began doing all of this professionally and started participating in various competitions. Since then, I’ve taken part in many contests, sometimes winning or reaching the finals,” he continues.

With photography now an inseparable part of his life, Tbilisi-born Nika, who also now goes by Da Miane, always travels with a camera. However, he almost never shoots commercially and rarely works on projects. “Mostly, I take on the role of an observer and don’t plan anything in advance, unless it involves staged scenes,” he notes.

Copyright ⓒ Nika Pailodze

Copyright ⓒ Nika Pailodze

Street photography as an everyday affair

Since 2014, street photography has been an almost everyday activity for Nika, a practice he began with a small digital camera borrowed from a neighbour. He often says that he is lucky that the street frequently offers up scenes he could never have imagined. From the mundane to highly contrasting situations, he finds joy in capturing everything, especially the interactions between people and their environments. “The stranger or more contrasting, the better,” he adds.

“I’m drawn to people’s clothing as much as the environment they move through, so if I’m in a familiar place (and I know every corner of Tbilisi), I can roughly predict where someone might go and prepare in advance to photograph them in front of an interesting backdrop. I also shoot spontaneously; a camera is always ready. I especially love those moments when I’m not expecting anything and suddenly have just a few seconds to react.”

This dedication to street photography also made an impact in the rare chances that he does documentary projects on the side. Photographing as he would in the streets allowed him to put some valuable skills to work, particularly approaching and communicating with strangers, and looking for interesting angles for documenting life in his chosen locations.

“If you look at my series “Mountainous Adjara” (Link to Website At The Bottom) you will see that my street photography background has greatly influenced my photography. I didn’t need to pose anyone, because with the experience I gained on the street, what a person would do, already gave me time to prepare for the appropriate shot.

“Street photography taught me how to communicate with strangers and, more importantly, understand them—what kind of people they are and how to approach them. This helped me a lot during the Adjara project and made it possible for the people I photographed to feel comfortable and free.”

Copyright ⓒ Nika Pailodze

Copyright ⓒ Nika Pailodze

The unnamed heroes of street photography

Instead of naming iconic street photographers as his sources of inspiration, Nika considers his street photography subjects as his heroes — ordinary urban people like sellers and buyers in the markets of Tbilisi. He has been photographing them long enough to easily identify certain personalities and even observe changes in their routines.

“It’s very interesting to observe how they change. I’ve even felt worried when someone hasn’t appeared in their usual spot for a long time. I’ve often wanted to approach them and show the photos I took, but I never do. These are characters I see in my own way, and they might be completely different people in reality from how they appear in my photos. I don’t even know their names,” he muses.

In a way, Nika sees these people as “nameless heroes” who exist only in his photos. “Once they leave my frame, it’s like they stop existing and only come alive again when seen through my camera. It doesn’t matter what social class they belong to. What matters is that they are in the right place at the right time when I see them.”

Copyright ⓒ Nika Pailodze

Copyright ⓒ Nika Pailodze

The ideal street photograph as a concoction of many factors

What constitutes the so-called ideal street photograph often varies depending on who you ask. But for Nika, it’s a combination of many factors, such as composition, angle, luck, characters, environment, and lighting. He also considers the street as a stage where all these factors and characters come together to tell different stories; and it’s the job of the photographer to extract the narrative fragments that they find interesting.

Timing is another important ingredient in street photography, often encapsulated in the philosophy of the “decisive moment.” However, he thinks its impact has already somewhat waned, to the point where his definition of the decisive moment has shifted.

“Of course, the decisive moment is important, but today, when we can shoot 120 frames per second, the magic of that moment has somewhat faded. At least among professionals, it’s no longer as impressive unless something truly exceptional is happening. Photography, first and foremost, is about framing—everything starts and ends there. A poorly framed shot can ruin an entire photo,” he explains. “Equally important is choosing the best frame from among many. Perfection doesn’t necessarily mean technical perfection—often, it’s the opposite. For me, the ‘decisive moment’ in my photos is the moment of choosing, because that’s what ultimately determines which image remains.”

Then, there’s also the topic of preference for colour vs. black and white for the ideal street photograph. Some purists would argue that black and white is the way to go, for its ability to emphasise composition and add drama to a photo. For Nika, however, what matters more is how and when one uses colour — or the lack of it.

“I don’t dismiss black and white photography and even consider it a kind of colour. Sometimes black and white can be more colourful than any colour photo, and vice versa. I always shoot in colour and may later decide to convert the photo to black-and-white during post-processing. Most often, my photos remain in colour.”

Likewise, he believes that colour can play a big role in street photography, especially in tricky or poor lighting conditions. It can turn a mundane situation into something more interesting through contrasting or complementary combinations.

“Colour can highlight a person from the background based on what they’re wearing and help place emphasis on the main subject. Colour is an independent carrier of both emotion and information and, besides what’s shown in the photo, it can create a preemptive emotion or impression. This can be both a good and a bad thing.”

Copyright ⓒ Nika Pailodze

Copyright ⓒ Nika Pailodze

The pitfall of familiarity

Having photographed life in Tbilisi so many times, Nika finds familiarity to be the biggest challenge in doing street photography. “The hardest part is finding the energy and curiosity to go out and photograph again. Familiar places, familiar faces—it feels like I’ve already captured everything,” he muses.

Still, the street always brings him surprises, presenting different challenges at different stages in his photography journey. “There was a time when I feared photographing strangers, wondering what they’d say if they noticed me,” he shares. “But with experience, that fear goes away—you begin to understand people’s types and how to approach them. When I shoot in a market, the biggest challenge is avoiding too many distracting or unnecessary details in the frame, because at first glance, it all seems like pure chaos.”

Despite these challenges, the photos he ends up with give him the energy to keep going, fuelled by the prospect of landing another memorable capture. Case in point is a favourite photo that he took in a market barbershop.

Copyright ⓒ Nika Pailodze

“There was a small barbershop, and the pink colour caught my eye. Upon closer look, I saw a bald man shaving another bald man’s head. It was a very strange and striking scene. I only managed to take one photo before the stylist noticed and got very angry—he told me not to take photos. Since then, I’ve returned many times and asked for permission to shoot, but he always refuses aggressively. This difficulty makes me love the photo even more.”

Finally, when asked about what he considers to be unique about how he sees and documents the world around him, Nika says he almost never thinks about the uniqueness of his work. And that if everything is unique, then nothing truly is. “Besides, street photography inherently implies uniqueness—each moment is unrepeatable. What matters most is the emotion I get from my photos. Let others decide if they’re unique.”

Make sure to check out Nika Pailodze’s website and follow him on Instagram (@da.miane.photographer) to see more of his work.