Chiatura's crumbling cable cars
It might be battered, faded and stained with rust, but a cable car like this one is still the quickest and most convenient form of transport in the Georgian town of Chiatura.
Dating back to the Soviet era, these cabins were built to facilitate the manganese mining industry, the bedrock of the town's economy. Today, six decades after the cable car system opened, much of it is still running.
A conductor sits inside a 60-year-old cable car.
An old communication system is mounted on the window inside one of the vehicles.
Commuters chat inside a cabin.
A cable car passes over the treetops in Chiatura.
A commuter looks out of one of the cabins.
The window of a cable cars offers a dizzying view of the town.
A cable car travels over the mountainous landscape.
One of the cabins casts a shadow on a building.
Fifty-six-year-old Eliza Kobiashvili operates a cable car from her booth.
A commuter looks out of the window.
Malkhaz Kapanadze, 36, oils and checks a cable car as part of general maintenance work.
Operator Tea Kekenadze watches passengers climb aboard.
People sit in front of a peeling cable car station.
Commuters wait for the cable car to arrive.
A boy stands at the door of a rusty cabin.
Thirty-two-year-old Lasha Ghughunishvili pulls a lever as he operates part of the system.
A conductor closes the doors of a cable car before it departs.
A cable car sails over the town.
