After the disintegration of the Soviet Union the Baltic states were successful in their introduction of democracy. The other former Soviet republics generally had to deal with corrupt and autocratic regimes. In Georgia, the Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan what have come to be called the Rose, Orange and Tulip Revolutions eventually led to some reforms and democracy. But tensions remain, not only through their position between the expanding West and a newly assertive Russia, but through a succession of political crises. For instance, the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine has not brought about the desired political and economic stability. George Georgiou travelled around the Ukraine on public transportation to photograph the daily struggle its population faces just to survive. He saw travelling that way as a fitting comparison with the transition to new systems and the continual changes in the Ukraine.

George Georgiou (b. Great Britain, 1961) has worked as a photographer in the Balkans, Eastern Europe and Turkey for many years. His work concentrates on people who are caught in between communities, cultures and ideologies.