10 unique 19th century postcards from Taus Makhacheva’s personal archive as seen in the artist’s book Types du Caucase.

Each postcard represents a “pittoresque” group from various tribes, families, nationalities or representatives of diverse professions of people from the Caucausus, presented in a style of colonial pictorialism emblematic of the exotization perpetuated by Russian/French speaking elites of the time.
Here, the artist has handwritten distinct texts by different writers, politicians and historians from the beginning and middle of the 20th century, depicting their various views on the Caucasus:

“I loved Tiflis more than any other town in the Soviet Union… It has a carefree and leisurely rhythm of life which is bohemian rather than Oriental; but its fastidious architecture and the courteous poise of its citizens make one constantly aware that it is the product of one of the oldest Christian civilizations.”

Arthur Koestler, The Invisible Writing, 1932