How Are You, Slovakia? (2025)

This project was born from a simple question I find myself asking more and more often: How are we?
How do we feel living in a country that seems to be moving in the wrong direction, in a world changing faster than we can keep up with?

Part of these reflections comes from my own life. I’m divorced, but life gave me a second chance. Today I have a wonderful wife and an amazing little daughter.
What does that have to do with anything? Only that nothing is ever final. Things can get better. Our country can be better. People who live here can live better lives—study well, stay here, and not be afraid of something as essential as our healthcare system. I hope young people will one day be able to truly build their lives here. I hope that the leaders of our cultural life will eventually be the people who actually have the competence to lead it.

There was a time when I read or listened to the political news every single morning. I don’t do that anymore. Maybe it’s self-preservation. I listen to music now. It’s more positive. But I’m not passive. This project is my attempt to look for a better face of who we are.

I photograph people across Slovakia. I print the portrait right on the spot, and each person writes a short message under it—whatever they carry inside themselves. A memory, a feeling, an opinion, something resting on their heart. This creates a collection of portraits and personal statements that show what we’re living through—not through statistics or analysis, but through people, their faces, and their view of the world around them.

The project is being created at a moment when Slovakia is standing at a crossroads. Politics is shifting in a direction that raises concern for many.

For years I’ve been going to protests, watching people, listening to them. I feel tension, but also hope.
I want to understand what we’re going through—and capture it. Not as commentary, but as an image. As a question I ask everyone—and myself:
How are you, Slovakia?