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South Ossetia is a tiny breakaway region inside the internationally recognized borders of Georgia, which has lost de facto control of this region. While not officially recognized, South Ossetia is an enduring entity on the South Caucasus political map and deserves attention and nuanced study. The South Caucasus is considered foremost a place of boundaries and divisions. It has been for centuries a borderland and is today fragmented by blockades and frontlines as a result of conflicts that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union broke down. South Ossetia has fissured away from its North borders and subsumed after the fall of the Soviet Union into the newly independent state of Georgia. That didn't go down well with the South Ossetians and fighting broke out toward the end of 1990, leading to some 1,000 deaths. A cease-fire in 1992 muted tensions for a time, but an escalation in August 2008 led to a full-blown five-day war with the participation of Ossetian, Russian and Georgian forces. Despite winning South Ossetia nominal nationhood, the European Union doesn't recognize this Georgian breakaway. Not many countries aside from a few Russian allies — such as Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Syria — and three small Pacific Ocean Island states have recognized South Ossetia as an independent state. It is often referred to as disputed territory in analytical reviews and the media.

Finalist

Echo in the Mountains

Svetlana Bulatova
Independent
Russia

Svetlana Bulatova is an independent documentary photographer. Svetlana is working on documentary projects, mainly in medium format. She works individually and focuses on long-term projects. She currently lives and works in St.Petersburg. Svetlana Bulatova was born in 1991. Since 2016 Svetlana has been working in the North Caucasus. The previous experience led her to South Ossetia, a partially recognized state in the South Caucasus. The focus of her attention is on overcoming the aftermath of war conflicts. She explores these opportunities through documentary photography. Svetlana’s works were published in National Geographic, Reuters, Caucasus Edition (Journal of conflict transformation), British Journal of Photography, Bloomberg, Calvert Journal, Russian Reporter, Novaya Gazeta, Takie Dela, and among others.

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