Przemek Zajfert is showing his Projekt The 7th Day at TEDx, Stuttgart 2014.

The Seventh Day: Silver, Lavender, Asphalt, Sun and Time

Why restraint makes you creative and free

What happens when, instead of taking one thousand snapshots, you make just one image and expose it for days, weeks, or even months? The artist and photographer Przemek Zajfert shows in his TEDx Talk how radical reduction, a pinhole camera, light, and a lot of patience lead to surprising freedom. His project The 7th Day is a poetic invitation to rediscover time as a design material.

What the talk is about

In the talk, Przemek Zajfert speaks about a simple, almost magical tool, the Camera Obscura. A light tight can, a tiny hole, a light sensitive sheet of paper, that is all you need. No lens, no display, no autofocus. Instead of snapping in milliseconds, you let the world act on it for a long time, hours, days, sometimes months. The result is not the crisp moment we know from smartphones but a condensation of time. In the images, the paths of the sun appear as arcs, changes in the weather weave textures into the sky, and even small coincidences, spider silk, pollen, raindrops, become co authors.

This attitude, less technology, more attention, is the core of The 7th Day. People around the world mount their home made pinhole cameras on windows, fences, or lamp posts, wait patiently, and then share a single image that shows time like a landscape. From many individual contributions a collective memory of places, seasons, and light emerges.

The five words in the title and what they mean

Silver: In analog photography, silver halides react to light. In the pinhole camera this quiet chemistry lives in the paper as well. It makes invisible duration visible.

Lavender and asphalt: A small bow to the early days of photography. Joseph Nicéphore Niépce experimented with bitumen that hardens in sunlight, dissolved in lavender oil. From this mixture came heliography, one of the oldest photographic techniques. An early proof that patience and sun are enough.

Sun and time: Both are the real lens in the project. The sun traces its path day by day. Time lets structures grow that we overlook in everyday life.

How The 7th Day works in three simple steps

Fix the pinhole camera: A small box without a lens, with a pin sized hole, firmly mounted in one place. Inside lies light sensitive photographic paper.

Expose for a long time: Outside, a few days often suffice, faster in summer, longer in winter, indoors rather weeks. Overexposure is surprisingly rare. Time distributes light like a fine brush.

Make the image visible: The paper is removed and digitized. What appears is a portrait of time, not a single moment but what happens between moments.

Why this approach matters today

Slowing down instead of point and shoot: In a world full of burst shots, the pinhole camera reminds us that waiting can be a creative method. Once you mount the camera, you start to think about direction, season, and rhythm.

Democratic and accessible: You do not need expensive gear. The project shows that curiosity and patience are enough to make art. It is ideal for schools, workshops, clubs, or curious individuals.

A new look at place: Long exposure reveals qualities that escape the quick eye. How does the weather move, where does the light travel, what traces does everyday life leave.

Want to get started yourself?

You only need a light tight can, a pin prick, and photographic paper. Find a spot with an open view to the sky, mount the camera so it resists the weather, mark the start date, and let time do the work. The first result is rarely perfect but almost always surprising. With every attempt your feel for location, angle, and duration grows.