Barbare Chikviladze, Georgia
Barbare, whose mother is a philologist and works in an insurance company and whose father is a lawyer, is growing up as an only child and has taken a liking to playing the piano in her spare time. And besides that, still quite fresh, she has developed an interest in photography. She just finds photography “really fun”. And was thrilled by the happiness in her friend’s eyes and expression.
Why is the picture we are awarding here a picture of peace for 14-year-old Barbare Chikviladze from the Georgian capital Tbilisi? Because, she writes, she is still young. But she knows very well that 20 percent of her country is occupied by Russia. But peace has to do with freedom. And freedom makes people happy. As happy as her friend was at that moment in a summer garden in Rustavi, when Barbare pressed the shutter release. Every child, she wrote, deserves to be happy and to live in a peaceful country. (Laudatio by Peter-Matthias Gaede)