What guides us

Visual exploration and photography study set in a secluded gorge in Bohinj, Slovenia. Driven by curiosity, the project explores the interplay between the finite nature of light and the infinite possibilities of shadow.

Am I walking toward the light, or is it the shadow that I am following?

As the region becomes more and more touristic, finding a place untouched by people has become difficult, not to say, impossible. It is even rarer to discover a place that remains virtually unknown. Yet, on the edge of one of the small Alpine villages, such a place still exists. Hidden among the rocks lies a secluded gorge whose name should remain unspoken. Its entrance is watched over by someone from the village. Only with permission could one enter the depths of the canyon.

I knocked on the door of an old house, exchanged a few words, and politely asked for permission to enter. I had come at a very precise hour – the brief moment when the sun reaches into the narrow void and fills the gorge with an extraordinary light.

Barefoot, dressed only in swim shorts, and carrying my camera, I began my journey. There was no path to follow, no signs pointing the way. Only rock and water. Light and shadow. As I slowly found my way through the gorge, one question kept returning to my mind.

Walk into the darkness.
Walk where nothing is to see.
Walk towards the shadow,
and see how free you’ll be.

Walk, and do not look back.

As you walk, remember:
in the darkness the eternal lives.
Walk towards it,
and see how much it gives.

Walk, and do not look back.

When at last you arrive,
lift your eyes.
There, a bird is flying,
high above the skies.

Now, stop. And let it be.

Light is finite. Shadow is infinite.

Light reveals, it shows and guides. It is dictating a strict, finite reality of what is physically there. It gives us absolute, undeniable information.

The shadow, however, removes the information and replaces it with an infinite expanse of possibility. The darkness holds more “information” precisely because it is undefined, allowing the human mind to project endless interpretations into the void.

Unseeing

The concept of unseeing explores how the human mind perceives shadow. When we strip away the information necessary to distinguish the objective world, the mind begins to imagine, searching for patterns and meaning—not only in the external world, but also within itself.

The experiment employs scripting tools to transform the visual representation of shadow—the photograph—into an abstract interpretation. Abstraction does not seek to provide answers to the act of exploration; rather, it aims to stimulate the imagination and invite even more questions.