Imagine waking up and realizing that you are now living in a different country.

But you never moved.

Such is the case for people living in Tskhinvali, or South Ossetia, a region recognized by the United States and NATO as Georgian territory but a Russian stronghold for the last 30 years. A truce was ostensibly called in 2008, but as the photographer Tako Robakidze discovered, ask any Georgian in the area and they will insist the conflict never really ended.

“There are two kinds of people along the border, people who fight every day along the creeping border and people who have lost everything,” said Ms. Robakidze, who grew up in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi and documented the crisis in “Creeping Borders,” a new project. “Overnight, you can find out your land or your house is now in occupied territory.”