Confronted by Eternity (2020)

Daniel Pastirčák

In 2020, I photographed Daniel Pastirčák on the occasion of a book of conversations with him, prepared by Michal Oláh for the Slovak weekly magazine .týždeň.

At first, I had imagined a more traditional portrait. I wanted to photograph him wearing his priest’s robe – the symbol of his public identity that people naturally associate with him. However, when Daniel arrived at the studio, my perspective began to change. I realised that what mattered more was the person beneath the symbol – his physical presence, vulnerability and connection to the spiritual world.

I asked him if he would be willing to take off the robe. The resulting portrait is not built on external authority, but on the encounter of a person with himself. Every year, Daniel shaves his head. This simple personal ritual became a powerful image for me – a metaphor for removing the layers we create around ourselves and searching for the essence of being human.

The project was created in 2020 while preparing the book Confronted by Eternity. I was not interested only in portraying a well-known priest, writer and thinker, but rather in capturing a quiet moment between the body, faith and the inner world of a human being.