This year’s Eurovision trip unexpectedly became one of my favourite photography experiences in a long time.

Eurovision 2026 was being held in Vienna, but during the trip I also decided to spend a day exploring nearby Bratislava as well. What started out as a week built around music, live shows and Eurovision atmosphere slowly turned into something else entirely once I had my camera in hand.

I brought the camera along thinking I would casually document parts of the trip, but very quickly I found myself approaching both cities differently. Instead of simply photographing landmarks or trying to prove I had visited somewhere, I became more interested in atmosphere, framing and composition. Quiet details, dramatic skies, reflections, symmetry and little moments hidden between the obvious tourist locations.

In a strange way, not having expectations creatively gave me a completely blank canvas to work with. There was no pressure attached to the trip photographically. It was just me wandering unfamiliar streets, practising compositions and experimenting with ways to frame scenes so they felt more cinematic and immersive.

Vienna immediately stood out visually. Storm clouds hanging over cathedral towers, statues watching across gardens and elegant architecture appearing around almost every corner. Even with Eurovision fans filling the streets all week, there was still a calmness to the city that made slowing down with a camera feel natural.

A lot of the time I was not even looking for the most famous locations specifically. I became more interested in layering scenes together. Using foreground details, framing and compression to make the photographs feel less like documentation and more like fragments of atmosphere collected along the way.

That feeling carried over into Bratislava too.

I did not really know what to expect before arriving there, which honestly made me appreciate it even more. Bratislava felt softer, stranger and slightly surreal at times. Futuristic structures beside old streets, trams disappearing into moody skies and quiet corners that felt almost frozen in time.

At some point I stopped worrying about navigating properly and just let myself wander with the camera instead. Some of my favourite images from the trip came from those moments where I was not actively searching for photographs at all.

Looking back now, I think that is what this whole series became in the end.

Not really a traditional travel diary and not quite documentary photography either. More like collecting postcards between cities. Small fragments of atmosphere, light, framing and memory gathered along the way.