Pinhole Day, Abroad

Calabria, Italy.

The sun is shining bright, though it isn’t a summer yet. Beaches are almost empty, there is no rush on the streets of an Italian town. During the last weekend of April 2017, I visited my friend and a talented photographer, Dia Takacsova, in Calabria.

She’s been living there for a few months while working on her project. Already fluent in Italian, she chatted effortlessly with locals as she showed me the town of Soverato and the surrounding area.

Together with Dia’s flatmate, Andra, we walked around the town, cycled up and down the hills and even hitchhiked to the opposite coast. We had fun together, but I also enjoyed moments of silence and calm while walking on my own along the shore. Just listening to the sounds of the sea, enjoying the sunset, and hunting great compositions in the last moments before the sun hid behind the hills above Soverato.

Pinhole Day.

It was the first time that I spent Pinhole Day outside of my home country, Slovakia.

In preparation, I took my homemade wooden camera which I built five years ago with my father along with some Kodak Porta 160 film. It takes 120mm rolls and has about 120-degree view angle.

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day is the reason I’ve discovered the simple yet intricate craft of creating capable film cameras without a lens. A global photography event that brings together the seasoned, the new, and the occasional pinhole shooters, every last April’s Sunday.

This year, 2017, it’s on the 30th.

To participate, I upload an image from the day’s shootout to Pinhole Day website. On the same day, I spend time in front of a screen and watch a huge collection of pinhole photographs from all over the world grow.

I like to browse neighbouring countries’ submissions. Partly for inspiration, and partly out of curiosity: I wonder about photographers over the border and what’s life like out there, through a pinhole.

Every year since I started shooting and participating in Pinhole Day I did it from my home country, Slovakia. It’s been important for me to be able to shoot something in my village or in a town where I live now. To show others what we can create in Slovakia, to show how my village, Voznica, looks like — through my pinhole. I like to think of it as my way of showing love for my land and people.

This year, however, I am abroad. Creating a new perspective as a traveller, through my pinhole camera.

The results are — below.