Stephan Goss
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Photography / Georgia

Georgia

Georgia · 2024

In spring 2024, Stephan Goss photographed protests in Tbilisi for Al Jazeera. The demonstrations opposed Georgia’s foreign influence law.

He was refused entry when returning to cover the parliamentary elections later that year. The refusal was documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders and ARTICLE 19.

A protester in a Soviet-pattern gas mask stands in drifting tear gas with a Georgian flag over their shoulders, holding a water bottle; another masked demonstrator wrapped in a flag stands behind.
Plate 01 Tbilisi, Georgia, 1 May 2024 Stephan Goss Demonstrators brought gas masks and water bottles to the protests, expecting the tear gas and pepper spray police used to clear the street outside parliament night after night.
A line of masked riot police in black push into a crowd on a cobbled street at night; a man in a white T-shirt is shoved backwards while onlookers film on their phones.
Plate 02 Tbilisi, Georgia, 30 April 2024 Stephan Goss Riot police move into the crowd. Officers cleared the avenue outside parliament repeatedly through the spring, using tear gas, water cannon and pepper spray.
Masked officers in black seize demonstrators at the front of a crowd; an elderly woman is caught between them as the people around her shout and reach forward.
Plate 03 Tbilisi, Georgia, 30 April 2024 Stephan Goss Officers pull demonstrators out of the front of the crowd. Detentions were made night after night as the protests went on.
A young man with a dressing taped to his forehead and tears running down his face stands in front of an ambulance while a medic reaches up to hold the bandage in place.
Plate 04 Tbilisi, Georgia, 30 April 2024 Stephan Goss A demonstrator is treated at an ambulance after being injured during the police operation to clear the street.
A man in a cap and white respirator hands a water bottle to a volunteer medic in a full gas mask wearing a red cross armband, on a street lit by street lamps.
Plate 05 Tbilisi, Georgia, 30 April 2024 Stephan Goss A volunteer medic takes on water to rinse the eyes of people caught in tear gas. Medics worked at the edge of the crowd through each night of the protests.
A dense crowd carrying Georgian flags fills a street at night, facing a line of riot police with shields and a water cannon truck drawn up behind them.
Plate 06 Tbilisi, Georgia, 30 April 2024 Stephan Goss The crowd faces a police cordon and a water cannon on the avenue outside parliament.
Two men stand on a row of sticker-covered wheelie bins dragged into the road; one raises a clenched fist above a crowd that fills the street behind him.
Plate 07 Tbilisi, Georgia, 30 April 2024 Stephan Goss Demonstrators climb onto bins pulled into the road as a barricade. The protests ran for weeks against a law requiring organisations that take foreign funding to register as pursuing the interests of a foreign power.
A vast crowd fills a boulevard at night, European Union flags raised above it and smoke drifting through the light of the street lamps.
Plate 08 Tbilisi, Georgia, 1 May 2024 Stephan Goss European Union flags over the crowd. The protests were as much about Georgia’s bid to join the EU as about the law itself.
A man in a black T-shirt shouts with his arm outstretched, a woman in a gas mask beside him and a volunteer in a blue protective suit behind.
Plate 09 Tbilisi, Georgia, 1 May 2024 Stephan Goss A demonstrator calls out to the crowd as gas reaches them, a masked volunteer and a medic in a protective suit beside him.
A man tilts his head back with his eyes shut while a woman in a face mask steadies him and pours water into his eyes; others stand ready with more bottles.
Plate 10 Tbilisi, Georgia, 1 May 2024 Stephan Goss Water is poured into the eyes of a man hit with pepper spray. Volunteers carried bottles through the crowd for exactly this.

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