FORM A Space for Ideas, Culture, and Aesthetics
Editors’ Letter This summer, when I took on the role of Editor in Chief, I sought to create the next pillar of FORM’s visual culture. In the past two volumes of the magazine, we have not been afraid to establish our own aesthetic. This year, I wanted FORM to delve deeper, beyond the concept of aestheticism, and create a transformative space for the reader. I sought to make pages where the reader became lost, travelling in peaceful reflection. To fully understand this feeling, I had to first experience it. This summer, I witnessed this state of tranquility in a friend of mine. Her connection to her home and her roots embodied FORM’s ethos of Slow Living. This sense of belonging is central to the harmony we seek, and she achieved; a sense that I have never felt clearly within myself. Volume XXI became a time for us to reflect on who we are as creators and people, a celebration of this semester-long reflection. As Chris Kontos, Editor-in-Chief of Kennedy Magazine, suggested when I met him in Athens while searching for inspiration: the magazine is injected with the personal stories and identities of its creators. With this volume, FORM surpassed being a space of Ideas, Culture and Aesthetics, and has become our space for meditation and creative belonging. Art & Design opens with a conversation with Chris Kontos, discussing home, creative efforts, the importance of personal stories, and never losing your voice. In Still Life, three different modes of photography and three different subject matters, explore the relationship of subject and medium. Effect revisits By Hand from Volume XX, continuing the interplay of photography and painting.
To counter the reality of ever-growing consumerist tendencies in fashion, Style takes clothing to their foundational essence. In Uniform, the models’ individual character and personality is channeled into the simplicity of jeans and t-shirts. In In the Eye of the Needle, clothing is deconstructed to focus on its base: fabric. By looking at the thread that clothes us, the piece explores the importance of fabric in everyday lives. Our final piece is an interview with fashion entrepreneur and creator of her namesake line, Silvia Teh; where she tells of her background and the infusion of her roots into her designs to create a distinctive and authentic brand. Travel and Culture centers around personal exploration and finding home in unfamiliar places. Roots embodies the heart of the magazine, appropriately situated in the center, probing what and where is home and its individual significance. In A Travel Guide: New York City, the reader is taken on a trip with a NYC newcomer attempting to find a home in a city where it’s easy to get lost. An interview with photographer Alain Soldeville reflects on his rediscovery of photos taken over two decades ago in Bugis, Singapore and their relevance today. On Dust is an artist's exploration through middle America, rarely highlighted in the mainstream. Working on this volume has led me to reflect on my own story and how my roots influence my work. It has been moving to see those around me go through the same exploration to create this magazine. To those who had a hand in creating Volume XXI: thank you. To the reader: enjoy. Sincerely, Tommaso Babucci & Gianna Miller
EDITORS IN CHIEF
Tommaso Babucci Gianna Miller
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Kelly McLaughlin
DIRECTOR OF LAYOUT
Savannah Norman
DIRECTORS OF ART & DESIGN
Gea Bozzi Sofia Zymnis
DIRECTORS OF STYLE
Allison Wu Jean Yenbamroong
DIRECTORS OF TRAVEL & CULTURE DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Claire Gibbs Irene Zhou Justin Bรกez Joseph Kim
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
William Bernell
DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
Stephanie Cutler
DIRECTOR OF LOGISTICS AND FINANCE ART & DESIGN CONTRIBUTORS Grace Chun Olalla Duato Francesca Maglione John Martin LAYOUT CONTRIBUTORS Paola Casado Nia El-Amin Sara Held Alec Waxman COMMUNICATIONS Ananya Sadarangani Cole Zaharris Carly Mirable Claire Ryland Defne Turan
Bryan Rusch STYLE CONTRIBUTORS Ava Navarro Alex Raghunandan Elena Rivera Samuel Zhang TRAVEL & CULTURE CONTRIBUTORS Advaitha Anne Noah Breuss-Burgess Sophia Li Rafaela Rivero Sophia Parvizi-Wayne Sawyer Uzzell
Table of Contents ART & DESIGN The Biannual Journal of Curiosities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Still Life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 STYLE Uniform. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Silvia Teh. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 In the Eye of the Needle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 TRAVEL & CULTURE Roots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 A Travel Guide: New York City. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 ‘84 Singapore.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 On Dust. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
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The Biannual Journal of Curiosities It was summer when Sofia and I were playing backgammon on a beach populated only by a family of wandering, wild deer. The rush with which we packed and swam back to the boat was the same rush that the wind used to bring us back to the port of Athens. Here, with sand still on our feet, we were brought by a yellow cab to the center of the city. At a table of a small wine bar, with one edge caressing a decadent wall and the other edge leaving space for his legs to be crossed, Chris Kontos, Editor-in-Chief of Kennedy was waiting for us. We talked about creation and ideas, and we received advice on the making of the next issue of FORM. After a semester of conceptualizing and designing, we met with Chris again, recalling our time in Athens and our conversation.
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I’m trying to offer somehow through the pages of this magazine, a way to escape for a while. I don’t know for how long it can last, this effect, but at least I’m trying to give a way out, and a way out as a way of thinking.
Sofia: For a lot of people from Athens, myself included, we have a love-hate relationship with the city. I always miss it, but every time I go back I’m kind of disappointed at the same time. How would you describe your relationship with Athens?
Sofia: Do you remember our first meeting, in the streets of Athens, at that small wine bar, it kind of felt like we were walking right into Kennedy itself. Do you think that’s an appropriate analogy for our meeting? Chris: To be honest, I think I’ve mentioned this before, people think that because I’m from here, and this is my neighborhood and this is my city, I think they associate everything I do with my surroundings and Athens. But the truth is that my influences are all over the place, so for me it’s hard to define the space that I’m in, the neighborhood, the city as my direct influence in what I’m doing. And the influence is there but it’s mostly an influence that comes from the past and not from the present. There’s no direct connection to what’s going on in Athens right now and what I’m trying to do. The truth is I’m trying to base Kennedy, and the whole idea of the city, on stuff from the past that I think should be like a base, like FORM XXI’s theme, Roots. I think that the fact that I come from here gives me the opportunity to rebrand the country somehow, and the next project we have, the publication will be exactly that, to try and rebrand Greece and Athens. It’s a really weird time right now because Athens is evolving too fast and kind of losing its identity. So even for me, living here is a struggle lately, so I don’t identify myself 100% with Athens, and I’m trying to reestablish my relationship with the country and the city. You feel like the place, the city, is Kennedy, but from my side it’s not exactly like this. It might sound weird, but I’d like to put myself out of here somehow and see things from a different angle. Travelling gave me that opportunity I think.
Chris: Actually you described it 100%. Because I have the privilege to travel a lot and when I’m not here I miss it, and when I come back it only takes one week to start complaining about everything again. So it’s kinda weird, so you know travelling always makes me feel really tired, so I wanna go back and relax, you know take it easy, and then I come back here and there’s nothing of what I had in my imagination. I idealize the place when I’m not here and then I come here and I find all the things that I found annoying about it, to the extent that it makes everyday life a struggle somehow. Everything annoys me. And I think I annoy the people around me also because I complain too much. I complain about the fact that it’s really dirty. Like, honestly I think it’s one of the dirtiest cities I’ve ever been to, and living in the center of Athens is also a privilege but it’s also a really easy way to see everything that’s annoying about the city in your everyday life, in your everyday walk. If I didn’t have these breaks of travelling away from here, I would probably go crazy, or, I don’t know, decide to go away for good. And only come here as a tourist. Tommaso: In your opening editorials you talk about escapism and travelling and the tourism industry in Greece. As Kennedy, do you try and convey a sense of escapism to the reader as well? You just mentioned that you travel to run away but are you trying to get the reader to run away with you?
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Chris: I think that’s the goal. Most of the editorials I write act as an initiative for people to travel but not only in a literal way, not only to get on a train or a plane and go somewhere else, but to travel away from reality. And I think that the last editorial was all about that. So the purpose of the magazine from the start was to make an idealized version of reality. It’s not for everyone, but I think everyone is eager to join in - you know, it’s an open world. But it’s also a call to escape in a literal way, and see different places and situations. If you look at editorials of Kennedy, from the ones that I remember really vividly, there is the one about tourism, in Issue 5, one of the most important ones I’ve written, because I did a lot of research to write that article. And then there was one about being idle, and not working and not doing anything, so I think it’s also political in a way. And I want to be political but I don’t want to be political in the way that people are handling politics right now. For me politics is part of this imaginary world I’m talking about. I think the only way to get out of reality and the whole thing of too much information that we are immersed in at the moment, is to escape, and I’m trying to offer somehow through the pages of this magazine, a way to escape for a while. I don’t know for how long it can last, this effect, but at least I’m trying to give a way out, and a way out as a way of thinking.
your everyday life. A lot of luxuries I would say, like your internet connection. But I think that most people don’t really refrain, so they don’t really do diakopes, in the way that I use the word, in this editorial that you mentioned. Tommaso: I remember I read this editorial when I was in London during the summer. I spent an entire night reading it over and over because it made me think of how I was using my summer and how I was using my time. It was probably the most powerful piece I’ve read in all the Kennedys, it’s very important to me. Chris: That’s really good to hear because I think it’s an important article, but it’s also one of the driest ones, in the sense that it’s not so personal and not so emotional as other ones. But I think it makes a really strong point. And it really connects to the situation here in Athens right now. Athens is so full with tourists at the moment, that it feels like its August or July. Airbnbs have taken over the city, there are no apartments to rent if you want to live permanently in a home. So it’s more relevant than ever, that article I wrote back then, two years ago. Especially for Greece. Trying to find a balance between economic growth, tourists, and the identity of a country is a really difficult job, and I’m not sure it will be in favour of the heritage and the actual identity of the place.
Tommaso: It’s funny that you mentioned Issue 5, because we wanted to ask you something about “Paradise Lost.”
Sofia: I always look at your Instagram, to the point that me and my Greek friends have made a cult following of it. It depicts Greece exactly like it is, but also in an idealized way, like a memory of a place you know. Why did you start the Instagram? For promotion or is there more to it?
Sofia: In the intro of Issue 5, you mentioned the concept of diakopes, which in Greek literally means refraining from certain activities. A lot of people oftentimes confuse slow-living and laziness, and you focus a lot on slow-living in your magazine. How would you define diakopes and how would you distinguish it from laziness?
Chris: I did not have a smartphone for many years. The first time I used Instagram was because my wife bought me one and before that someone else was doing the Instagram for me. I would send the photos to a friend of mine and she would post them for me. Then I got a smartphone, and I got really addicted to it, I still am. For me it’s partly a vehicle for the magazine, to show our face out there. We live in a reality that is very visual, and I am also very visual as a person. For years now, I have been downloading images from internet, and I have a collection of hundreds of thousands of images on my hard drives. Instagram was the best tool to get that addiction out, using visual language. It works on many levels: it’s an outlet for the magazine, my photography, it works as a moodboard, and to be honest I use Kennedy’s instagram as a personal account as well. In many occasions I post something from Kennedy, like an article, and the response would be really poor. Then I post a picture of the meal I had and people go crazy. It works on many different levels, which is a good thing. It has done the magazine really well, and also it has helped me a lot with my personal projects as a photographer. A lot of my clients I met through Instagram, a lot of my friends I met through Instagram. I might say I am in love with it.
Chris: The thing about laziness is that, I think it’s a word that many people don’t get the meaning of it and the sense of it. I think that because most people are one way or another working in a business, probably they don’t like what they do. Laziness for them is like leisure time, they connect it with going to an island like the Maldives or Bali and sitting on a beach and doing nothing. But the laziness I talk about in that forward in Kennedy is not that kind of laziness. It’s a rebellion against the way society is trying to pin down certain roles in life that have to do with employment, more than anything. And how laziness can be a way of making your time creative. And the way it connects with diakopes, that you mentioned, which is a beautiful Greek word. In the summer most people have this idea that diakopes is a certain place, an island usually or near the sea, and indulging in activities that only happen for a couple of weeks and then they return to a reality which is rather dull and uninviting. So for me the real meaning of diakopes is to stop from everything you’re doing in your normal life, out of this imaginary world which is the island, and it can be refraining from a lot of things that you take for granted in 13
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Sometimes we see all these beautiful things around us, but we don’t understand the meaning of them, and how everything ties together in a bigger picture.
Tommaso: I remember that when we were sitting down at that little table, talking in the middle of the streets in Athens, you took out your phone and you zoomed in very close to a far building, and took a photo. It was very spontaneous, and when two hours later I saw the photo, it looked exactly like that moment. You took the photo without any preparation, there was no fixing aperture or shutter speed. You just zoomed in and took a picture of that place at that moment.
Chris: I always wanted to be a fashion photographer, but through my own concepts. I believe there is no difference between the way I see photography as a whole and how I see fashion photography. There is no difference between how I would shoot a picture without a person or with a model; I do not care what is going on in the photo. For me, it is one and the same thing. When I am taking a photo I focus on the feeling I want to communicate, as you mentioned yourself. I don’t care if the model is positioned well, I will look at that after. I don’t want to see everything in the moment I am taking a picture. I want to have a memory of that moment and then see how it looks on the film. It’s funny but when I take a good picture, even if I am shooting film, I know it. Then I look at the contacts and I know which ones are the good one before looking at them closely. I know the feeling at the moment I took the picture. The important thing is not to do too much when taking a picture, and take it spontaneously.
Chris: I like what you are saying because I think photography and the fact that you can share it with so many people through Instagram is a very good grasp of how beautiful everything is around us. I always believe in the beauty of the moment, and even if I use Instagram as a tool for Kennedy, the fact that you can post something the moment you see it while you are having wine with two friends, it’s a really beautiful thing. Sometimes we see all these beautiful things around us, but we don’t understand the meaning of them, and how everything ties together in a bigger picture. Photography and its spontaneity is a way to connect all the dots.
Sofia: When we met you for the first time we saw a lot of yourself in the magazine, to the point that often times when we talk about you we refer to you as Kennedy instead of Chris. How has it become so personal?
Tommaso: Reflecting on your photography, it seems that you don’t just capture a subject, but rather the atmosphere. You convey a feeling rather than portraying an object or a person. This is almost the opposite of fashion photography, which is your background. Is this purposeful?
Chris: You know when the magazine first started it used to be much more personal, because I used to write ninety percent of the content myself. Now it’s much more of a collaborative effort.
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Tommaso: We talked a lot about family, the concept of home, your relationship with Athens, which are all very connected to the theme of FORM’s Volume XXI, Roots. I was writing the content lineup for the magazine when Sofia and I first met you. When we were talking, I felt how the magazine had to be and, in that moment, I knew how the reader had to feel. And that’s why we want to open the magazine with your interview: you were the starting point of this issue, but I also want you to be the ending point. Do you have advice for us moving forward as young creators and for people that do this just for passion’s sake?
I am very happy about it, if it was a one man show it would be ridiculous in a way. Even now I try and inject a lot of my personal life in the magazine, because I think people are interested in life stories and people. Everything needs to be human centered, and humans have names, so my name in this particular case is important. When I write an article for another magazine, people know me from Kennedy, they know what I stand for. The fact I do not like magazines like Kinfolk for example, is because they are not human centered. I don’t care who makes the magazine or what it is about, there is no story behind it. People want to be part of something, and when you put your personal touch on it, people like it more. The success of the last issue is due to me taking a risk and putting an eighty page article in Kennedy. What editor would put an eighty-page feature in a magazine? But this article was the most successful we have done so far. And I took full responsibility. And it worked. Injecting personal stories in a work of art, it’s really important.
Chris: It’s been a family process from the start. My first collaborator was my best friend Angelo. After Angelo’s death, I continued with my friend David who helped me with design, as well as Cedric. Even though they are people I do not see all the time, we are friends, like a family. My wife designed the last issue, and as a couple, being creative is a very good thing for the relationship. It’s a nice thing to take this project on as a team, with my wife and friends. Dreaming about the future and other projects that can come out of Kennedy, for me it’s really important. I would not work on the magazine in any other way.
Chris: I can see the way you work, and I really like that introduction, it’s a big compliment for me, knowing I inspired you and everything came together after our meeting. I think you are already on the right track. FORM acts and thinks in a way that is really true and honest. In the first issue of Kennedy, the editorial I wrote was about honesty and I was telling people that this was going to be an honest publication, we will not lie to you. We will be ourselves. If you like it we take it, if you don’t it’s fine. Not everything is for everyone, you can’t agree with everyone, so you should always focus on what you are doing and never look at other people. Never say what other people would say. Never fear criticism, bad comments or anything. You have a vision and I think you should never let anyone take that away from you. Youth has the gift of being enthusiastic, which I don’t have because I am forty. Use that as your advantage. Young people now have much more resources and can accomplish amazing things earlier. In the creative world you see young photographers and writers doing amazing stuff. Young people make amazing stuff. You have started building something very nice and it is only the beginning. My ultimate advice is to be yourself, and it’s going to be fine.
Sofia: With all these outside influences how are you able to keep the entire magazine consistent?
PHOTOGRAPHY Tommaso Babucci WRITING Tommaso Babucci & Sofia Zymnis
Tommaso: As you just mentioned there are other people working for Kennedy, one of which is your wife. How does that relationship work, do you consider it almost a family effort?
Chris: We are all like minded. Everyone who contributes to Kennedy, even who did it only once, they all know what they are getting into. We are the same team and when we drop the idea on the table about an article, we all know it’s something we will all support. I don’t see it as something difficult.
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Objects arranged in interesting ways - new patterns and dimensions - the amateur artist’s first challenge of translating the world onto paper, the old master’s mark of excellence. Still lives can feel mundane, and uninspired, yet their value does not lie in the mere creation of the scene, but within the study of the space between the objects, their proportions and relationships. The interplay of the objects becomes the dialogue, all context and surroundings subtracted. In this series of still lives, multiple layers of context tell multiple stories. Composed through photography, the relationship of their subject matter and medium tells the story of the evolution of art and its focus. Fruit compositions, the most traditional still life subject, present from the early days of the Renaissance to the modern art student’s first assignment, were photographed using film photography, a traditional style which requires a lengthy production process. Compositions of antiques and contemporary objects were captured with 35mm film, a medium which has teetered on the edge of obscurity and extinction but has found a new fascination by the current generation of photographers. The most modern compositions, brimming with objects of technology and contemporary culture, were paired with digital photography, mirroring the polished look that this medium offers, with refined lines and smoothed edges.Stemming from the roots of the practice of visual arts, Still Life walks the viewer through a segment of art history via the shifting lens of photography, proving the timelessness of this tool to explore and express the core of artistic expression. PHOTOGRAPHY Justin Báez, Francesca Maglione, John Martin & Samuel Zhang WRITING Bryan Rusch & Sofia Zymnis
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e feffect c t
PHOTOGRAPHY Tommaso Babucci & Sofia Zymnis WRITING Sofia Zymnis
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Purple hues
intertwined with white streaks.
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Glass left half
stained by its crafter.
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w i n d o w s ;
the quintessence of visibility,
o p e n n e s s
and light are transformed.
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They do not hinder the viewer from seeing, but invite him to look. in the otherwise bland repetitiveness of the city.
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They stand out,
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Looking through these windows,
what is inside is tinted by every sunbeam
that passes through the glass.
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And what the world must look like to the inhabitants of these buildings; pink-stained
cars making their way through
pink-stained
alleyways in this
pink-stained
city.
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Perhaps this pink-stained reality will remain forever undisturbed, all they have to do is keep the window shut. For when it is opened, this pink-stained reality is shattered into pieces. shattered
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PHOTOGRAPHY Joseph Kim ASSISTANT PHOTOGRAPHY Samuel Zhang WRITING Ava Navarro & Allison Wu MODELS Alyssa Carter, Justin Ching & Ava Navarro
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Yet something about a white t-shirt and jeans is just as unique. The two are a tabula rasa, inviting and demanding self-definition and self-invention.
What a person wears and how they choose to wear it communicates an individual’s narrative. Everyone has clothes that they have made their own, clothes that essentialize their character and spirit. Yet something about a white t-shirt and jeans is just as unique. The two are a tabula rasa, inviting and demanding self-definition and self-invention. The wearer’s identity and roots are put at the forefront, demonstrated through their choices amongst the infinite combinations of accessories, emphasizing understated individuality in a world that increasingly relies on loud and obtrusive style to make a statement. This ubiquitous pairing is the uniform of the everyday. From its simplicity emerges, at once, a blank canvas and the creativity and individuality needed to fill it.
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Silvia Teh Ceiling to near-floor windows flood the studio with soft natural light. In one corner, four sewing machines huddle together, with layers of cut fabric and spindles of black and white thread strewn on top of the machines and across the adjacent work benches. More yards of muslin hang on the wide rungs of pale wooden ladders propped against the wall. Black, charcoal, iron and taupe sit neatly on the sunlit oak next to heavy rolls of sketch paper, cream toiles, and full-body mirrors fitted with slender red alder frames. Silvia Teh’s workspace, much like her designs, exudes a poised minimalism that checks and eases the energy of whoever walks in the door. Born and raised in Indonesia but trained in Singapore and Milan, Silvia was the winner of Harper’s BAZAAR Asia New Generation Fashion Designer Award in 2015. At age 24, she has already debuted two collections under her eponymous label, captivating a global audience with sleek womenswear designs and moving steadily towards an even more capacious spotlight with the support of key fashion figures. Now based in Singapore, Silvia speaks to FORM about entrepreneurship, definitions of workwear, and consolidating her own brand identity.
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Irene: Let’s talk about your life before you started working and how you got into fashion. So you were born and raised in Indonesia...
Irene: Indonesia, Singapore, and Italy... so all of these places, because they’re so different, how do they all come together for you to influence and inform your designs? Does any one of them stand out in particular?
Silvia: I was born and raised in Indonesia in a small city that doesn’t recognize fashion at all. But I knew I wanted to get into fashion when I was 14, when I was watching this Taiwanese show about a fashion designer. I didn’t know what a fashion designer was at the time and this show revealed to me that the job exists. I think I always knew I wanted to be a designer, I just didn’t know that it was an actual job.
Silvia: I think the one that stands out the most is Milan. Indonesia and Singapore are very different. In Indonesia the fashion that they recognize there is more... party dresses and sequins and body-con. And that was my first exposure to fashion, so at the time I was more into party dresses as well. When I went to Singapore - that was the first international exposure that I had - I was able to see stores like Gucci and Givenchy and then I began forming my aesthetic. But what Milan brought to my world was sophistication and effortlessness. Everyone in Milan, from young girls to men, to older ladies, they all have incredible style. I really liked what everybody wore there so I was so inspired just from walking around. One of the other key influences of my aesthetic now is actually from my internship with designer Thomas Wee. He likes to do a lot of minimalistic, Japanese-inspired pieces that resonate with me and this is an aesthetic that I’ve held on to.
Jean: Then you went to Singapore? Silvia: I managed to convince my parents to let me go to art school in Singapore. I realized that fashion design is something you can learn by yourself, whereas the business and merchandising is something you need to be taught. So I took the relevant courses and learned design by interning with a designer in Singapore and entering myself into many design competitions, including the one at Harper’s BAZAAR, which I ended up winning. Because all the winners had to start selling their collections almost immediately, this competition actually allowed me to launch my brand in Singapore in 2015 right after the show. But then I took a year-long break to go to Milan for my masters degree, which was also part of the prize.
Jean: Your current designs are definitely strongly minimalistic. And by nature of that there isn’t really much choice in terms of color or pattern variation, so how do you establish and maintain your originality as a designer?
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And I really admire their strength and independence; they don’t care what others think. If they want to wear this to work, they’ll do it. Silvia: For me, I am trying to instill a distinctive design identity that is very specific to my brand, because, of course, a lot of people are doing minimalism and designs are bound to see similarities. So what I’ve tried to establish is... if you see one detail I have in my first collection is a ring at the back of the top with a long strap; the ring is inspired by the concept of yin and yang and the long strap is an obi belt. So that’s part of the identity I’m trying to build: my designs are very Asian-inspired and will remain so. Another feature you’ll see is that, a lot of my dresses and my tops come in a loose size, and I provide my customers with this extra long ribbon that they can wrap twice around their bodies. This wrapping method is something I’ve always used and what I hope will contribute to my brand’s identity. It’s an interesting concept that really just comes from the fact that I want customers to feel comfortable in my designs. I want my pieces to be something you can wear for a long time, not just once or twice. We’ll all gain or lose weight over time, so I made loose pieces and added this ribbon because I want you to be able to show the shape of your body over the years. And it’s up to you whether you want to wear it loose or with this belt. I want my designs to feel timeless.
Silvia: I would say that my target market is women who work. My clothes are stylish workwear and I want people to feel like “Okay, I can wear this to work.” I think nowadays some companies are starting to be more flexible about what you can wear to the office as long as it’s appropriate, but there’s still a long way to go for women to feel comfortable wearing stylish clothes to work. You know, is it because of a strict dress code or is it because you don’t feel comfortable dressing differently from other colleagues? In my experience, I only see women who work in media or fashion, or who are designers themselves, dress stylishly on a dayto-day basis. But I want women in other industries to feel comfortable enough to do so as well if they would like to. Jean: Right. It’s very easy to just... conform in the workplace. Silvia: When I was still studying in Singapore, I had a couple of mentors who helped me shape the aesthetic that I wanted. One of them worked in fashion and the other was a magazine editor and both of these women have actually bought my clothes as workwear. And I really admire their strength and independence; they don’t care what others think. If they want to wear this to work, they’ll do it. As long as it is still appropriate. And I think that’s how it should be. As long as you’re not crossing any boundaries, you don’t have to wear just a regular shirt to work.
Irene: Since you’re saying you want women to be able to wear your designs throughout the years, what would you say your target market is?
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Irene: So your designs are sort of an understated statement, minimalist but with a flare: very wearable to work, but not typical workwear. By making your clothes comfortable and easy to wear and catering to all body types, do you think you’re also empowering women to push the norm and express themselves more?
I really love design - I can’t imagine living a life not doing something design related, and I actually tried applying to all these fashion houses as well because that was my original plan, to work for an established designer for a few years then launch my own brand after that. But unfortunately, I ran into visa issues so I just ended up launching my brand right away. And I thought I would figure out my aesthetic along the way. Another challenge you have as a young brand is the limited budget you’re working with. Because after you finish designing your collection you have to go through production, marketing... and after that it’s just a waiting game. From an artistic point of view, I think that passion is a very overrated concept. Having a passion is one thing, but maintaining that passion is a challenge. Starting your own business... you don’t know what is right or what is wrong until you see the numbers. And often your passion can be mixed with things that you’re not so passionate about. I actually wanted to come out with a new collection earlier this year, but I just felt so uninspired. I tried to go through books, go to museums to find inspiration but I just couldn’t. So I took a little break from January to mid-year and I just got back on my feet. This was really a time of self reflection and gave me space for rediscovery, and I want to translate that into my new collection.
Silvia: Yes, it’s definitely something I’m trying to push forward. Not just me, but also other minimalist brands, they’re also trying to establish this trend of stylish workwear. Brands like Joseph, Jil Sander, all their clothes are actually made for work, they’re just not “normal” workwear. It’s not a trend I can create by myself as a young brand. But all these international brands share the same concept and we’re all trying to promote the same idea. Jean: Speaking of being a young brand, what challenges have you faced as a young, up and coming designer? How do you deal with them and stay motivated to keep going? Silvia: It’s all very different from what I imagined when I was still a student. As a young designer, what I’m still doing right now is I’m still trying to find my voice. Although I have established my brand and I’ve shown two collections, I feel like there is still a missing puzzle piece that I have not found yet. My design aesthetic grows along with how I grow as a person. For example, for my first collection, all the skirts were shorter than knee-length because that’s what I perceived as young and youthful. But my second collection, I’ve grown up more and I veer towards longer and midi lengths. I like designs that are more modest now and I have a different idea of what I view as beautiful. So that translates into my designs. But the missing puzzle piece, how I change my perception of beauty and what I value as cool... I feel like the missing puzzle piece that can connect everything is something I have not found yet. It is not easy because unlike me, a lot of young designers normally work for some years at a fashion house before starting their brand, so with all this experience they know exactly who they are and what they want.
Irene: Sounds like your new collection will be a reflection of your growth during this time? Silvia: Exactly, down to the color scheme. Jean: Well now that you’re back from your break, what are you working on? Silvia: I’m halfway into developing my second collection, since I got my inspiration quite recently, and I really want this collection to reflect my experiences. And this time I’m putting more craft into it, things like embroidery, because I want some intricate details to show in this collection. PHOTOGRAPHY Courtesy of Silvia Teh WRITING Jean Yenbamroong & Irene Zhou
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In the Eye of the Needle
In Collaboration with the Kenan Institute for Ethics
Feeling naked is a phrase not meaning that one feels without clothes, but that one feels vulnerable, and susceptible to the world. Clothing is a place of safety and comfort - the hold of a favorite piece of clothing, better than home; the hold of any piece of clothing, a necessity. We take up this extra layer naturally and make it part of our own narrative. We build who we are, and how we are identified through our choices every morning. To show identification with an idea or group, we choose brands, and proudly wear miniaturized animals and symbols on our left breast. In these few centimeters, social status, hobbies, and aspirations are communicated. In these few centimeters, the identity of the wearer is given up, and laid at the knees of the brand, which supplants it with an identity crafted with intent for years, to fill niches and appease demographics – no, to create these demographics. In this industrialized world, every action has a doubled reaction, and every identification has doubled implications.
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IN THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE
We must take up our own identites and learn to feel comfortable in our own skin.
We take up our second skins and hide our own narrative. We feel comfortable because agency is removed, and the narratives we present are already written and out of our control. We feel a naïve complacency, shielding our hearts behind these symbols, knowing that a million others have hidden their hearts behind it as well. A boxed and cornered identity takes out the uncertainty; the masses take away what too many see as loneliness – individuality. We must take up our own identities and learn to feel comfortable in our own skin. Each of us have a unique story to tell, views to share, and perspective to enlighten others with. To hide our hearts and give away every opportunity for self-expression which clothing provides is to deny yourself.
In the Eye of the Needle is a visual essay about breaking free from the confines of branded clothing, by taking it back to the source: fabric. Covered in Denim, Linen, Cotton, Tweed, Seersucker, and Velvet, the models' beauties are accentuated by pure cloth. Their identity is highlighted and brought to the forefront with no strings attached. PHOTOGRAPHY Tommaso Babucci WRITING Bryan Rusch MODELS Emily Chang, Henrik Cox, Olalla Duato, Daniel Fawcett, Haeryn Kim & Liya Wu
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ROOTS
Roots PHOTOGRAPHY Sofia Zymnis WRITING Qasim Hameed
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Four Degrees It was postulated in the early years of the 20th century, by a smart man who wrote for a living, that no two people in the world are more than six “degrees” removed from each other. Here is the story of four. In a house of half-baked brick, in the orange-farming Sargodha district of Punjab, Pakistan, lives a man who rises each morning, after dawn cracks but before it splits open, and withdraws to a field of groves. He is a farmer, one of many, although in his youth this was perhaps not what he had wanted. What he had wanted, admittedly, had also been unclear; since from when he was of shovel-holding age the man had worked the same field, helping his father, who had done the same with his father before him, and so it had been with each of the man’s many ancestors. The land he works is not particularly large, but produces an annual yield lucrative enough that he can afford to feed his family of seven, three girls and two boys, who work with him on most days, as the man himself had done in his youth. On some days, however, the man works alone, and on some of these days, when the evening sun streaks the sky with a dimly luminous orange, he sets down his shovel and takes a few moments to sit, symmetric, between the lines of trees. In these moments he wonders, quietly to himself, if he belongs. The man has a friend, who he sometimes calls, and who had worked in the same district, farming his own land with his own father. He had done this until he reached an impressionable age and had decided, then quite certainly, that this was not what he wanted. His realization came at, and due to, the onset of entertainment media – from evenings spent in front of a 22-inch television he had acquired, that showed moving pictures of pretty women walking down brightly-lit streets of European capitals. So, he had decided to move, following a route not atypical of men of his age and situation, smuggling himself through deserts and mountain passes and importantly, across borders. He has settled, at last, in Paris, where he has found work on a brightly-lit street, at a food truck serving up kebabs for customers, some of whom look quite like the pretty women he had seen in his youth, but none of whom seem quite as fascinated by him, or indeed anymore, he by them. He lives in an uncomfortable apartment in what would be described as a not very well-to-do Parisian neighborhood. But in-between his life as a farmer and as a traveler and as a kebab-maker he became quite used to discomfort, so this is not a huge problem. He does however wonder, on some days, about the land he farmed. The land his brothers still farm, as do his sisters, and their children as well. He wonders if it was home.
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Among his regular customers is a woman, with whom he sometimes chats, in a mix of French and English that just registers as comprehensible. She is a literature student in her twenties, pursuing a graduate degree at a nearby university once famed for having lots of literature students, but now in decline. Still, she is a lover of Paris. It is here that she has lived for the past six years, a time long enough to mold anyone, and she was always impressionable. It is here where she dreams to publish, perhaps not a bestseller, but a novel worthy enough to line a couple rows of the public library where she spends most of her waking hours. But on some days after she is done angrily flipping through pages of Camus as she steps off the MÊtropolitain, she pauses. She inhales, deep enough to swell her lungs with musty air. And then she hears, only for a moment – here, there, and everywhere – the footsteps of millions pattering on pavement, that by their ubiquity, promise a strange permanence, but are soon gone. They are silenced by the shrieks of the next train approaching the stop, where she is dawdling. She wonders about her own footsteps, and if they are starting to do the same. The woman knows a man, a retired literature professor who sometimes visits her university and lectures her graduate class, but who spends most of his life in a very white house off the coast of the Italian town of Positano. Here he rises each morning for an elderly stroll, armed only with a wooden walking stick that marks his path with dotted holes shaped like half-moons. On days that he is early enough to rise, which given his years are not most days, he enjoys interrupting his walk and crouching, as far as his knees and stick allow. He does this so that he may be still when he sees the waves from the morning tide, angrily crashing ashore. He sees them slow down, just enough that they lick his feet, and recede, peacefully, as if they had never come. But they had, and he knows that they had, for he remembers them from the dampness his toes still feel as they sink into the sand. It is then that he settles down, cross-legged, setting aside his stick, and gazing at the morning sun still half-hidden on the horizon. He wonders about the day all of him will rest underneath this same earth.
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A TRAVEL GUIDE: NEW YORK CITY
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Ippodo Tea To escape the morning bustle of New York City, enter the wooden cave that is Ippodo Tea. The 39th Street location, opened in 2013, is the first overseas store for the company that has been serving green tea in Japan for three centuries. Here, tea is presented, not just as a beverage, but as an experience that should be savored. The dim lights across wood lined walls create a minimalistic oasis where quiet guests grab to-go cups of matcha and sencha, trying to capture the inner balance of umami on the rushing street. A single sip transports the drinker to Kyoto, where these teas have been produced for centuries in the same techniques. Ippodo has the power of breaking the whirling spell of New York, and whether in the morning rush to work or as a special outing while visiting the city, Ippodo’s meticulously created, authentic experience fills anyone with comfort and warmth. 125 E 39th St, New York, NY
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A TRAVEL GUIDE: NEW YORK CITY
Dashwood Books While Ippodo provides respite in the storm of New York, Dashwood Books’ small retail space embodies the harmonious discontinuity of the city. Since opening in 2005, Dashwood Books has served as New York City’s only independent bookstore devoted exclusively to photography, presenting photo books and projects from artists all over the world. Although it functions as a bookstore, its energy would be described more accurately as that of an intellectual’s office. The perimeter of the tight space is made of plain, plywood bookshelves, filled to the brim in a casual way, building a sense of adventure in the browse. One can thumb through books of contemporary photography that have otherwise limited distribution in the United States, scanning images of photographers from The Netherlands, Aboriginal Australia, and Japan. But the shelves are not the only opportunity for a good find; many books are tucked into the boxes placed coolly around or laid on the metal table in the middle of the room for display. While the physical space is limiting, the world the selection presents is endless and unplaceable, mirroring the streets and their ever-changing tides of cultures and peoples who enter New York. 33 Bond St A, New York, NY
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Greenpoint
Fish & Lobster Co. On a slow and unassuming corner of Brooklyn sits Greenpoint Fish & Lobster Co. The fish market and restaurant was born from the desire to provide the neighborhood of Greenpoint with high quality and responsibly sourced seafood. The space is crisp but comforting as the natural light from the substantial windows hits the bright white tiles, reminiscent of a classic nautical lighthouse. Hues of brown and blue break up the sterility and bring a sense of hominess to accompany their fresh comfort food. Orders are scribbled with pencils on half sheets of paper, while in front of the large windows, chefs shuck oysters and clean fish chosen from atop the ice, on display for customers and passer-byers alike. The Steamed Calendar Island Mussels, presented in a cream with shallot, garlic, parsley, white wine, and butter is a satisfying feast for the seafood lover. The freshness of the mussels from Maine are felt in every bite, as the strong structure gives way to melting in your mouth. The cream it is served in would serve as a meal by itself - as an ideal soup, accompanied by the plentiful sourdough toast provided. 114 Nassau Ave, Brooklyn, NY
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Dante NYC
Notes of jazz outside of Dante only hint at its inner ambience. Remaining true to itself since opening in 1915, Dante transports one back into the turn of the 20th century with low light and a carefully curated and maintained interior. Nestled in Greenwich Village, the bar is open all day, providing enticing meals for all hours, along with the best drinks in the city, all with a classic Italian soul. The vibrancy of the house favorite drinks - the Garibaldi, Negroni, and Negroni Bianco - juxtapose the subtle warmth of the physical interior perfectly. Dante, with its maroon and cream checkered floor, white brick walls, rattling radiators and vintage set-pieces, takes guests out of the hereand-now, no matter their origin or destination, to feel distinctly at home, in this distinctly New York atmosphere. 79-81 Macdougal St, New York, NY
PHOTOGRAPHY Justin Bรกez WRITING Claire Gibbs
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‘84
Singapore Singapore: Sitting on the second floor veranda of the Objectifs Centre with Alain Soldeville. Alain became a photographer in 1980 when he dropped out of university as an economics major and took his camera to Southeast Asia. For two years he drifted nomadically over and across the tropics, recording through film the cultures that he encountered and people he met. Returning to France at the age of 25, he then began selling stories to magazines in France that eventually launched him into a career as a photojournalist for publications including The New York Times, Vogue Homme, and National Geographic France. Thirty-six years later, the French native now focuses solely on his personal projects and finds himself back in Singapore to host a photo workshop in Bugis. It’s not Alain’s first time in Singapore - his first visit dates back to 1981, when he discovered Bugis and produced the body of work that eventually became the acclaimed Bugis Street project. Bugis Street went on exhibition in Singapore in 2014 and gained widespread popularity for its vibrant portrayals of the transgender community and reignition of a historical interest in the area. At the heart of the city, Bugis Street is now a slick engine of commercial development, puffing chain and smoke at every turn. But almost 40 years ago, ‘Boogie Street’ was a landscape bricolage of al fresco bars, off-duty sailors and transvestites.
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Irene: Well, that first time you came here, it doesn’t seem like you set out for Bugis Street. In fact, you forgot about most of these photographs for most part of 25 years, so what were you looking for in Singapore?
It is calm under the cooling roofs of the Centre - its sloping wooden panels feeling oddly colonial against the commercial cosmos of Bugis. The workshop he hosted just finished and we are chatting about the afternoon, our ventures into the bazaars on Waterloo St. and attempts to capture compelling street portraits.
Alain: I was interested in transsexuality, as a motif. Because when I was young my sister and I had read a book about Coccinelle (Jacqueline Dufresnoy), who was a very famous French transsexual. So I think it has always been in the back of my mind. And when I was in Bangkok, in 1980, I saw a travel book and I found Bugis Street, where there was a very interesting scene with a transgender/transsexual community.
Irene: December 1980, was that your first time in Asia? Alain: No, no. I had begun travelling in Asia in 1977. I was in Iran in ‘78, Afghanistan… After I came back from Afghanistan in ‘78, I resolved to become a photographer. That country just struck me with its beauty. I gave up my studies very decisively and left at the end of ‘80 to travel in Asia, especially to go to India - I had always been fascinated by India- and to just make photos along the way. I was 23.
Irene: Oh, so you didn’t stumble upon it. You were looking for it. Alain: Yeah, yes. I was looking for it. I was staying in a hotel on Bencoolen Street with two guys from Switzerland.
Irene: So going to Afghanistan really inspired youAlain: To become a photographer, yes. I just gave up everything. When I went back to France in ‘82, I sold some stories to magazines and little by little I began to be professional.
Irene: That’s just right over here... Alain: Yes - I went there yesterday to see it, but it’s been destroyed. So I went there (Bugis Street) the first night, and after some time, I became friends with a girl, Anita. She introduced me to her community.
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I was attracted by people who are different, who are living on the edge of society. Irene: Why do you think they accepted you into their community? Alain: In my work... it’s strange because in many of my recent works, the photographs are posed. It’s very fictional. But I think [in Bugis Street] it was an exchange between them and me: they were posing, but they liked to pose, and I was simply following their movements. They were posing, and I was taking the photo. Irene: It wasn’t planned. Alain: It wasn’t. It was just natural. They liked me. I was really living with them. Sometimes I was sleeping in their apartments, sometimes I was too tired, so I came back to my hotel to get some rest. Then the following night I was at Bugis Street again. So in the end, I photographed maybe about 50 different people. But the main characters, there are around 15. I liked photographing them because I was attracted by their ambiguous identity, and I thought it was really interesting. I was attracted by people who are different, who are living on the edge of society. And still I am. I don’t know if you’ve seen on my website, black and white pictures of bodies adorned with tattoos, piercings… Irene: “The Eloquent Body” Alain: [nods] The idea of doing that work came from India and Sri-Lanka. I saw religious festivals there, and it interested me to do that work. Irene: Why did you decide to present the photos after so many years? When you rediscovered them? Alain: It was all by chance. I forgot about them for 20 years, and found them again when I was classifying my archives. I had an envelope with all this film, and I scanned them one by one - with the first Nikon scanner ever made actually. And I rediscovered the pictures. I didn’t forget about the series, I just got interested again, because I think it was quite contemporarily relevant. Especially the film-making, the cinematic interest of it. That’s why I was interested to show it, later on. 102
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To become a photographer, yes. I just gave up everything.
Irene: Do you think there’s any value lost in the years that you didn’t present this project? Alain: Ah. Well I think when I took the photos in ‘84, I sold the story to one or two magazines in France, and one in Italy. But I think at that time nobody cared about Bugis Street. And everything I had photographed in India, in Bugis Street, I could not do anything with it. Professionally, I mean, for sales. Irene: Is it right to say that this project is much more important now because people are now looking back at this history? That the value of rediscovery is actually adding a lot more to the project… Alain: Yes, you’re right. But I think it’s not only for Bugis Street, it’s for all photographs. Those that have re-gained popularity. Old series, old photographs, of any topic: news, history… Irene: What are you working on now? Alain: Since 2003, I’ve done many series on Bangkok. Now I’m working on my archives. My old archives. I’ve been concentrating on that for two years already. And I’m working on the project of India, which was done after Bugis Street. For 14, 15 months, I went to India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka; I have around 250 good photographs chosen from the 2,800 in the beginning. I’m also beginning to write: two different book projects. It will become like a trilogy of that period: the photographs I took before leaving to Southeast Asia, Bugis Street, and then the work on India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. PHOTOGRAPHY Alain Soldeville WRITING Irene Zhou
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ON DUST
Suddenly, this was not the life they had dreamed of, nor the world they had wanted to bring children into.
The metal hiss of the new train wheels passing over century-old rails drowned out the tolling of the bells at the town hall, marking noon. This hour, the water tower and old brick façades along Main Street all seemed to sit in complacent and apprehensive stillness, as if they knew that this bell marked more than the mere end of an hour, but the inescapable end of an era. This ending was not heralded by large mechanized tractors at the back of landowners forcing evictions as had happened in the '30s. Nor by prospecting, black suited men planning the industrial boom of the '60s. A slow creep was felt across the towns. The families had heard stories from their grandparents about shuddering at the gusts of wind which heralded the Dust Bowl, but they never imagined that they would experience the same feeling. However, this time the shuddering was prompted by the whisperings on the television and internet – an unnatural genesis, to an unnatural end, of an unnatural creation. Heralds could be seen in the growing number of empty parking lots and abandoned buildings, in the passing and unfeeling words of a newscaster.
And then one day, with no warning, the factory was shut down, the employees, laid-off. They claimed rising raw material prices and the progress of technology. The fathers returned home solemn, stone faced as always. The mothers asked no questions. Their children, glued to their iPad. The news would only be relayed at dinner – all together – each unprepared, bite of food dropping from their hand. The rest of the meal was laden with the weight of denial and confusion. These feelings quickly turned to unspeakable grief and uncertainty. The severity of the situation hit the mother and father, but they unspokenly knew that they could not waver in the face of utter disaster for the sake of their children. Suddenly, this was not the life they had dreamed of, nor the world they had wanted to bring children into. Once the children went to bed, the husband talked with the wife. For hours they talked of what they would do. He had never made that investment, she had never started that secondary degree, they had never set up that emergency fund. Till the sun was rising, they talked of what could have been, what would have been, what should have been done. They knew that neither was to blame. But everyone was to blame. They were, their neighbors were, the town, the state, the country, the bank… no one was innocent in this tragedy. Every step could have prevented this future that was foretold. The free will of rugged individualism could stamp in the face of destiny, if only there was enough strength left in their body. Little did they know, that one must be holding onto the edge of normal life, at wit and wills end, to be a rugged individual.
Fathers returned home from the line and changed clothes, joining their wives and children for dinner, and then in the living room to watch television. When it wasn’t football season, the news blared between sitcoms and reality TV. Local and national news were all the same these days, broad statements and scare tactics. When they started talking about closing the factories and outsourcing jobs to places he had never heard of, he had thought it would never come to them, but was anxious all the same. The winds of media had been picking up, but they had grown immune, emotionless to the possibility of change.
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The pathway has once more turned into a trail of dusty abodes occupied by residents who have clung on to their legacy and heritage on the land for generations.
The husband woke up the next morning, early as always. He had gone to the gas station so that he was absent for the childrens’ morning routine as always. He didn’t want to break the illusion of normalcy. He was absent when his wife returned from dropping the children off; absent of mind and soul, despite now being present in the recliner his old throne in the living room. This was his day off. Tomorrow, the search would begin. Today, for the first time since his childhood, he would cry, cry for his second loss of innocence and the loss of a naïve view of a simple world.
family road trip. Franchises had taken part in this game, out pacing and ousting the mom-and-pops of the Route. But just as the people were now leaving the small towns of the Midwest, the franchises’ grip had crumbled with the decline in tourist traffic. Life became about the location, and not the journey. The pathway has once more turned into a trail of dusty abodes occupied by residents who have clung on to their legacy and heritage on the land for generations. The hollowed-out shells of industry and consumerism, stripped of their antiquated technology dot the landscape. Straddling the homes and restaurants that had been there for a generation longer, these metal monstrosities became monoliths of an age past. Within a month, they began to show their poor construction and lack luster design; metal rusting and wearing away against the particles in the wind, brick walls turning the same color of the land, blending into the landscape like giant termite mounds that had once been filled with the busy labor of a thousand humans. As the lights went off in these great halls, lights went on and posters in the windows taken down in the roadside car garages and way stations that had once claimed to provide ‘The Best Service Around!’ Each of these re-found structures, crying out with uniqueness and a story forgotten, a story that is about to be rewritten. The rugged individual is waking up.
The moving trucks began to come down the street. It was inevitable a few families would leave, those who had connections elsewhere in the country. Houses went up for sale, with no prospective buyers. To the coasts, they said they were heading. Whether East or West, it no longer mattered. The world of industry and opportunity had become random. The bank and their envoys had found and drained the land of natural prospects. With the fleeing families, the big-box stores began to die. This region was no longer profitable – the sustainment of these human lives, no longer necessary. The family had discussed getting in their car with what belongings they could. Travel that fabled Highway to the promised land. Route 66, where their ancestors had once fled debt and dust to pick fruits in California, had been transformed into a tourist trap of motels and restaurants. The road had become a monument to the wanderlust strangers and opportunity seekers of the '30s, admirers and imitators following in their footsteps, giving birth to the
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ON DUST
The roots of this tree are expansive and resolute, and from this, new growth begins again.
This was the land their family had been on for generations. Their great-great-grandparents had fought man and nature to settle here. Their grandparents had fought corporations and mass production to stay. Now was their time to fight. Only this time, the fight is not against some foreign entity. No, it is against the unknown, against the emptiness, and against the internal conversations that echo in the void. Together, the family decided to stay. This land was in their blood. Like an old tree that had once grown wild, their way of life and towns had been pruned and cut for a century, at the word of men who would only see this part of the country in passing and be pleased with the transient view. And now, the men had grown tired of this tree, and cutting it at the base, made the leaves shudder with every hit of the axe, more and more leaving the branches of the tree with each strike. But while these men only paid attention to the top of the tree, they did not see what was occurring under the soil, growing ever deeper, stronger, and more resilient. The roots of this tree are expansive and resolute, and from this, new growth begins again. The father found no work – but he would make his own job. The mother would create a new education, for these new times. And the children would grow in this land that had been staked out by their ancestors. And for the first time, they would hold the power to shape this land and their future, not with constraint and the drive for mass conformity and profit, but with connection and compassion, acceptance and individuality. PHOTOGRAPHY Annie Dreyer WRITING Bryan Rusch
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