Holiday home / 2017 - in progress

Whenever I think of my childhood, I always associate it with holidays. I don’t know why. Maybe it is because the days would go by at different pace then so that one can remember them better. Or – maybe it is because of the place I was born. I was born in socialist Czechoslovakia. One of the features of non-democratic regimes is that one can travel only to where he or she gets permission to travel. Even if it is meant to be your holiday destination. In 1989, the regime fell. Socialism was over. The nineties and democracy began. The borders were open. Only now we realize that those times were also hard yet in a different way. For common people, going for holidays was still rare. Not everyone could afford it. On the threshold of adulthood, I was studying university, with no money yet longing to see the whole world; to travel anywhere I wanted. Today, I have a wife, two kids, a dog and the house in a place which many choose for their holidays. My attitude toward holidays and its significance is still in its formative phase. However, it’s been perfectly reflected in this photography project. For that I am trying to explore how people in Slovakia take a rest, how they build their own personal paradise and what kind of impact it has on the image of the land.