Through My Eyes

This is a film about an observer, and a story about the Paris pulse at the turn of the century in the 1920s , which experiences the explosion of new artistic styles and becomes the epicentre of modern art. Among them is a very talented young man, Veno Pilon, who was already established and a recognised painter at home in Primorska region, in Italy at that time. There Pilon mingles with Henry Miller, Max Ernst, Ossip Zadkin, Giorgio de Chirico, Roland Oudot and others. Two years later, Pilon becomes one of them and writes in his diary: 'I wasn't attracted by painting anymore, since my faith in my own work was shattered. I fell back to Paris, to lose myself in the crowds and forget myself. I wanted to become anonymous… Hence I was avoiding exhibitions as well.' After his arrival in Paris, Pilon stops painting almost completely, and is instead inspired by photography. Through his portrays of the Montparnasse artists, the records of their artistic works and shots of Parisian hustle and bustle, Pilon is part of the birth of the photography, during a period when photography has reached its pinnacle. Photography becomes his bread and butter, a means for providing for his family. One of the most famous quotations by Paul Eluard reads: 'In Paris, everybody wants to be an actor; nobody is content to be a spectator.' The very same Eluard who penned one of his long poems to one of Pilon's photographs at his first Paris exhibition in the Carrefour Art Gallery in 1934. 'This was one of the greatest recognitions of my work,' remembers Pilon. Ironically, it is exactly Pilon for whom Eluard 's quote doesn't just apply! Pilon was namely exactly that: above all an observer, a spectator, and everything else only after that. A photographer! Photography was Pilon's secret passion, a silent lover who never abandoned him and instead accompanied him all his life. Pilon sang his song of songs with painting as well as with his mistress, photography.