Since 2017, 25-year-old photographer Sofiya Loriashvili has been assembling an archive of pictures recording her world. “I began carrying a camera everywhere I went, driven by an obsession to document everything that caught my eye,” she tells Dazed. Born in Ukraine but living in France, her camera became her constant companion. “At that time, I mostly lived in the night, capturing nightlife and its unique characters. Meanwhile, I was struggling with addiction, which led to hospitalisations and stays in rehab. I always managed to bring my camera along, continuing to capture life even in those confined spaces.”

Taking pictures began to make life more legible. “With my camera, I could see things more clearly,” she tells Dazed. “The first time I got interned in a psychiatric hospital, I asked my mother to bring me a camera which she did. Photography allowed me to take a break and come back to the moment; it was something that kept me grounded even in times when I felt the most wasted.” Documenting these turbulent times in forensic detail led her, after her last stint in rehab in 2021, to enrol in a photography school in an attempt to forge “a more stable, healthy life”. In her final year, Loriashvili was required to present a portfolio and this editing process evolved into her decision to make a book – “a small, pocket-sized collection that would bring together all the stories and people I encountered during this time”, she explains. 

Her prolific photography practice doesn‘t only involve taking portraits of the people she encounters, she also loves rifling through the detritus of their lives; the waste materials, objects and souvenirs often omitted from the frame. “I like having a detective’s eye,” she says. “I love rummaging through people’s mess, discovering others’ apartments, and looking down at the ground… Trash cans, crushed animals, period blood, the way clothes take shape when we take them off and leave them on the floor. Even though I photograph people a lot, what truly obsesses me is everything that surrounds them – all the objects that make them who they are.” Having chronicled the chaotic details and the “friendship, parties, addiction, death and love”, a vast, complex vision of a life emerges from this pile of fragments in the form of My Book. 

While it’s a uniquely personal collection of pictures, the scope of the project is wider and ongoing. “I’ve been fortunate to meet many incredible people and stories along my path. My Book is their story,” Loriashvili says. “For me, photography has always been a way to create memories, whether real or fictional. I’m deeply attached to the feelings of melancholy and journey that photo albums can evoke. I plan to release a ‘My Book’ every two to three years, to update my portfolio, see how my perspective evolves, and most importantly, to gather more moments and stories.”

In this way, the project can be seen as a kind of antidote or alternative to Instagram (even though she admits that she “loves” the internet and describes it as her biggest inspiration). “Today, as a photographer, I find it impossible to select just ten images to represent my work,” she explains. Self-publishing allows Loriashvili autonomy over how she disseminates her images, also enabling her to control how they are presented. And there’s something much more appealing about the idea of enshrining these memories in a physical rather than digital way. Each book becomes a relic; part of the story. 

My Book is available to order here now.