Luca Baldassari: A Pinhole Camera in the North Cape

Editor’s Note: All images in this article are ©Luca Baldassari 2015

For this week’s artist feature we’re pleased to take a bicycle trip with Luca Baldassari to the North Cape region of Norway. He was was able to fundraise on indiegogo to pay his travel expenses. Luca made this trek in 2014 on his trusty Surly Ogre bike loaded down with panniers. His camera for the trip was his homemade camera that he’s dubbed the “baldaV” – a worthy 4×5 that he kept loaded with Fuji FP100. The FP100 was, in our humble view, the perfect film for this landscape, as it oozes with blues and greens, especially when exposed through a pinhole.

Luca lost his father in December 2013, and the trip was a tribute as his father had wanted to go to North Cape.

“I feel lost and [know that] I’d lost something and someone forever. I feel that now I have to face travel [held off] for a long time because of fear. I made [the trip to] rediscover who I am and [who] I lost, [knowing] it’ll never be like before. I’m leaving with the bike and pinhole with the hope and consciousness that they’ll help me to restore, redefine who I am. [I headed in the direction] to North Cape for my first bike travel following EuroVelo 7’s route, from Stoccolma, 2600km. 48 days on my own but with the support of all those who believed in my project.”

Luca found the following passage from CSI’s song, “In Viaggio” particularly moving:
“Viaggiano i viandanti viaggiano i perdenti più adatti ai mutamenti
viaggia Sua Santità
Viaggiano ansie nuove Sempre nuove…
Cadono di vertigine…”