The photo book If the Sun Could Talk to Me is an exploration of the process of growing up. The starting point of the book is an analog 35mm photo diary, which I have kept since 2018. Diary-like works capture and preserve moments to which we can always return, allowing us to reinterpret, reconsider, or relive memories. This creates an opportunity to look at the world and at ourselves with childlike curiosity. The book transforms these individual snapshots into a cohesive story about growing up, where everyday moments, travels, places, and human encounters trace the development of personality.

The book combines visual and textual elements in two ways: on the interior pages, short text fragments from the diary convey intimate, subjective thoughts and feelings. In addition, smaller sheets inserted between the pages present key terms from encyclopedias and glossaries. These terms include, among others: secure background, socialisation, adulthood, autonomous personality, competition, belonging, emotional competence, identity, transformation, intuition, tolerance, trust.

These terms interact with the images: the objective definitions are expanded by the subjective responses of the photography and diary text. This creates a tension between the inner and outer worlds: we experience personal development and self-perception while the terms simultaneously reflect the social frameworks, norms, and learning processes into which we are integrated. The dual structure of photographs and texts illustrates the balance between individual and society, between physical experience and mental reflection, and between memory and the present.

This is still an ongoing project: The series will be published in the form of a photo book consisting of 184 pages. The photographs are finished. The book design is currently in progress, and the book is being produced by lapozom.books. The dummy will be completed in April 2026.

Click here to read Kata Martincsák’s article about this work.