In the center of Leiden, close to the train station, is a cafe called “Eigen Zorg”.
This what it looks like from the outside:
Everyone that enters this café is surprised: it’s like going back 50 years in time.
The tables and chairs, the dark wood panels, the reading table and the old huge television, the drinking cups, all is unchanged since the sixties. So I have started to take pinhole pictures. It’s close to an office location where I regularly work, so I can hop in during lunch hour, order a coffee, and set up my camera. Usually no more than two or three shots at a time, because some spots in the room ask for exposure of 20 minutes or so.
But as the lady that owns and runs the place is full of nice stories and witty remarks, that’s not a bad thing to do. I once returned and announced that I needed to place the camera for way longer exposures than the last time, and she responded “that’s OK, I’m open till eleven this evening” 🙂
These are the first pictures I took (you can see the owner in the second one, chatting for the four minute exposure):
And this is a picture taken in the back of the room:
There are more pictures to find there, and I’m still returning regularly to place the camera (the 8Banners Mb in 6X12 mode) on other spots in the room, on the bar, near the window and so on.
So I’m gradually building up a series of pinhole pictures, that will form a portrait of a café where time has stood still. I will then create a nice gallery on this site.
And of course I will take a few prints for the lady at Eigen Zorg to keep!