Misha Mchedliani's painting of Mt. Ushba in his kitchen in Mestia, Svaneti, Georgia. High in the mountains of Georgia, between the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in a valley surrounded by 5,000-meter peaks, is Svanetia (Svaneti). The old men of this valley told me that the Svans are the descendants of Sumerian slaves that escaped their bondage and fled north to the Caucasus, where they worshiped the sun god Lile’. Because of this, in all my journals, I called them: “The Children of the Sun.” I stumbled into Svaneti with a hand drawn map and a handful of slide film, and no vision for storytelling, in 1998. But over the course of 107 rolls, taken in three journeys over three years (from 1998-2000), I learned to see. The result was my first photo story, and one that would lead to my career as a National Geographic photographer. Sixteen years after that first journey, National Geographic sent me back on assignment to find my family again, and to create a feature for the magazine. This photo was made on that return journey in the Mchedliani kitchen where I spent many weeks in conversation with my guide and his family. Ushba was such a dramatic mountain and felt like the centerpiece of Svaneti for me. It appears in so many of my images from this place. I remember hearing the stories when I first arrived that this was the rock where Prometheus was chained! 6000 × 4000 pixels
