A series based around years spent in Tbilisi, Georgia by Belgrade-based photographer and artist Ksenia Mikhailova. Originally from Russia, Mikhailova moved to Georgia because of the war, staying for two and a half years. “Big Cherry” is a diaristic record of that time, the title drawing from New York’s “Big Apple” and the sense that Tbilisi had become a place drawing people in from everywhere for different reasons:

“Rented apartments and people who lived in them, small objects from ordinary days, the long stretch of hours between leaving one home and arriving somewhere that isn’t home yet. Much of it is waiting and the silent, uneventful work of detaching from the ground one used to stand on, with nothing solid yet underneath…. Georgians, students from Nigeria and India, Russians, my partner and me. All of us passing through and looking for somewhere to land.”

Ksenia Mikhailova participated in our 2026 Book Award open call and made our shortlist.