Making Friends in Tbilisi's Meat Market

Uta Beyer is a German who lives in Tbilisi, Georgia, where she works on economic cooperation projects. She's also a fantastic photographer with a keen and frequently whimsical eye. Her blog, Georgia Unlimited, has some great images, particularly a series of shots (like the one above) that take a very loving look at butchered pigs for sale in Tbilisi's main meat market.

I asked Uta to give a little bit more information about the photos. Here is what she had to say: 

After having lived in Tbilisi for some months, I passed by the Tbilisi meat market (Basroba) one day, near the central station. Like in an advertisement, huge pink pig heads smiled at me.....me! The nearly vegetarian. I felt like a married man in a red light district. Should I? Yes, I should. 

 The Tbilisi meat market surely is an indecent place. Tongues, kidneys, brains and whatever dark red goo en masse. The XXL pig heads smile down on us from everywhere, and shout: Buy me! The rotten smell, the red faced butchers with knives in their hands and the flies in my head - thank God this is not Brazil or the Georgian summer yet! The scene made me want to walk away. But this overwhelming dark, wet, shiny red of meat, the drunken spirit of this twilight economy, and more than anything, the smile of the dead pigs, absolutely fascinated me. 

 That day, my view towards meat has changed in a way. I made peace, and I surely found new friends in Georgia, among the dead.