Z cyklu „The Joungle”


Michaela Davidova

Wielka Brytania – UK

Cardiff


I come from the Czech Republic and 4 years ago I have moved to London to work. I followed one of my childhood dreams and started to build the pinhole cameras to play with during my leisure time. Since then I made dozens of them and they are always accompanying me everywhere I go.
Now I live in Cardiff, in Wales where I was attending the Cardiff School of Art and Design. I love cycling and analogue photography and historic photographic processes. I am always working on the designs of the pinhole cameras under the brand AYTACRAYTA.
In the Czech Republic, I was responsible for the independent cinema Studio Karel, volunteering for Krásná Ostrava and Amnesty International Ostrava and coordinating the eco-art projects in the Multicultural centre Cooltour. I am trying to keep myself restless all the time, ready to go for the adventure!


„The Journey” is the collection of the pinhole images which were taken mainly during my cycling journeys and my living in London.

Last summer I made a cycling journey from London to the Czech Republic. I stopped in the Jungle, the refugee camp, to do a pinhole camera workshop with refugees. The results are 4 images taken with the shoe box camera. They were exhibited at the London pinhole festival 2017 and are part of the Journey exhibition too.

Also, I arranged the beer cans along the way to capture the Sun and collected them when cycling back to the UK. With the home made pedal generator I scanned the solargraphs into the computer pedalling my bike again in my bedroom.

The rest of the images are my very first pinhole pictures taken in London, the images capturing the canal when I used to live on a boat, pictures from travelling or commuting around. As the pinhole cameras became the witnesses of my everyday stories they are capturing the memories which goes through any journey of my life.

The images are currently exhibited in the Arthouse gallery in Aberystwyth, in Wales until 7th of June. They are mounted on the foamex boards with the hooks ready to hang on the wall.

During my summer journey I was writing the cycling blog which is available here neboyblog.wordpress.com

„The Jungle” text: on page text