One of the (many) things we have come to expect and enjoy from each new edition of the gay photo zine ELSKA is the element of surprise. Not just in Editor Liam Campbell‘s selection of local men, but in what we learn about the city/country’s queer community.  In this the 44th Edition, Campbell visits Tbilisi in Georgia a  beautiful corner of the former Soviet Union.  He discovered that gay life in Georgia is actually notoriously difficult.

Despite a rather progressive post-Soviet government that passed many ‘European’ laws to protect the LGBTQ community, a highly conservative and Orthodox society has had other goals, meaning that regardless of the legal situation, local gays have felt little safety. To name just a few examples, a local LGBTQ magazine had its offices raided by police for bogus charges, the same happened to a community center, and several Pride marches have seen their attendees greatly outnumbered by violent counter-protestors. Yet the LGBTQ community kept marching anyway, they kept creating more spaces, and in greater numbers every year.

That of course would never put Campbell off  and he decided that if local gays could find the courage to assert their existence, Elska could at least back them up by highlighting that homosexuals do indeed exist in Georgia and deserve our attention.”

Inside ‘Elska Tbilisi’ and the companion zine ‘Elska Ekstra Tbilisi’ fifteen local men are introduced. Each was photographed in the streets of this intoxicating town and in their homes, revealing their style, their mood, and their bodies. Each also wrote a personal story, penned themselves, bringing you even closer to them. The tales they contributed touch upon a variety of subjects, such as Omo T’s meditation over whether his thirtieth birthday means he should finally settle down; Nika J’s childhood recollection of the day Russia started bombing his country in a war that resulted in the occupation of 20% of Georgian territory; Dmitrii G’s piece on the hardships of fleeing conscription into the Russian army to fight Ukraine by moving to a country that is hardly welcoming towards Russians like him; Nika P’s recount of a visit to a traditional bathhouse on a day when a fight broke out; and Iakob M’s recollections on how dance saved him from bullying during high school.

where and how to buy Elska www.elskamagazine.com.