Ubikwist magazine issue 0 by Ubikwist magazine

THE BOUNTIFUL ISSUE AUTUMN/WINTER 2014

hello

The bountiful issue

Editor’s note

Contents

Usually when you begin a journey, you don’t have much but hope and determination.

Caryl Ivrisse, gallerist by FRANCIS ROUSSEAU page 4

However, the creation of Ubikwist and it’s ultimate transformation into a platform of art and

Jodie Patterson, entrepreneur by BELINDA BECKER page 6

culture, complete with fresh faces from diverse backgrounds and inspirational icons from the past,

Louis-Philippe Vigilant, chef by FRANCIS ROUSSEAU page 10

proved to have an abundance of talent and a wellspring of vision. Thus, this issue, Bountiful, is

Maya Angelou by MASHA CALLOWAY page 12

a culmination of effort, boldly drawn from copious amounts of perspiration and dedication.

Obi Cymatica, shoe designer by MAX WILSON page 18

Each article and story brings with it a singular nuance. A collaborative effort amongst artists interviewing one another through the lens, the keyboard, fragments of memory captured and

by BELINDA BECKER page 22

Kuoth Wiel, actress, writer, activist by STEVEN TATE photographs by MARCO PIANA styling by GIANNIE COUJI page 30 Betina La Plante, photographer

by MASHA CALLOWAY page 38 by ZOLTAN+, photographs by JONAS MÁTYÁSSY page 48

Like a sculptor, the excess was pared down, revealing lines of thought, curves of discourse

All about Sharam Photographs by PATRICK IBANEZ styling by GIANNIE COUJI page 60

and silhouettes of beauty. One would think that an issue named Bountiful would entail excess

Metallic chic Photographs by TIZIANO MAGNI styling by GABRIEL VAZQUEZ page 74

but I believe on the axiom: Less is more. A properly prepared and arranged piece can tell you

Sunday stroll in Harlem Photographs by PATRICK IBANEZ styling by GIANNIE COUJI page 80 Photographs by AUDISHO & MAXIMILIEN styling by ROMAIN LIEGAUX page 92 Photographs by TIZIANO MAGNI styling by GABRIEL VAZQUEZ page 102

I would personally like to thank all who were involved in this inaugural issue. No rewards were

Japonisme Photographs by INAKI art direction and make-up by TOPOLINO styling by MELANIE BRAULT page 110

explicitly promised to each contributor, other than the satisfaction of having a platform to exhibit

James Baldwin Place by WARREN REICH page 120

one’s craft and share it with others. It is this unconditional vision that binds us together. Enjoy

Karl Meszlényi, artist by ZOLTAN+ page 126

your voyage onto an abundance of talent.

Rachel Redmond, soprano by FRANCIS ROUSSEAU page 132 Bruno Pieters, designer by STEPHANE GABOUÉ page 134

Giannie Couji, editor in chief

Founder Giannie Couji Editor in chief and creative director Giannie Couji Design director Stephen Male Consultant at large Irene Silvagni Editorial consultant Francis Rousseau Contributing editor at large Zoltan+ Beauty director Topolino

Contributing writers Belinda Becker, Masha Calloway, Stephane Gaboue, Warren Reich, Steven Tate, Max Wilson Contributing fashion editors Melanie Brault, Romain Liegaux, Gabriel Vazquez Contributing photographers Audisho & Maximilien, Christian Badger, Robert Charlotte, Andrew Dosunmu, Mahe Elipe, Chester Higgins Jr., Patrick Ibanez, Inaki, Betina La Plante, Tiziano Magni, Jonas Mátyássy, Marco Piana, Bruno Pieters Logo design Nexcreations Casting consultant at large Barbara Blanchard Copy editor Warren Reich Bouba, Michka Bengio, Maurilio Carnino, Arnaud Cauchois, Rama Diakite, Lisa Diruocco, Macha Eliez, Christophe Kutner, Kyle Hagler, Susannah Hooker, Aurelie Jezequel, Seamus McGarvey, Chioma Nnadi, Suneeta

Cover photograph by Patrick Ibanez Styling by Giannie Couji Hair by Raquel Martuscelli at Solo Artists Make up by Pas Poma Model Sharam Diniz at Next Models Dress by Sophie Theallet

Caryl Ivrisse,

gallerist by FRANCIS ROUSSEAU Photograph by ROBERT CHARLOTTE

contact with, let say, Art? I came in contact with Art at around the age of 10, when I was in school we had drawing classes. From then on, I was always interested in all forms of creativity right into adulthood. Painting, in an encyclopedia at home (while having drawing classes). What precise circumstance or person who prompted you to embrace such a career? I don’t think that there was a precise moment or circumstance but rather a succession of things and opportunities. I must admit that Sensation exhibition in 1997 at the Royal Academy of Art in London, was one of those moments. When did you decide to become a gallerist and a curator? I didn’t decide. It just happened. At the time, working as a culture editor for various publications in London and Paris; and always being around artists, street artists, photographers, musicians, fashion editors, etc. had facilitated contacts with different individuals and “cultural” environments. I have contributed to several art projects in various ways, until I was But what moved me to become a gallerist, was when (following my heart) I relocated to Berlin in 2003. Since I had quit my job as the editor of a Parisian youth publication, I

in german at the time), but was introduced to

the thriving Berlin art scene, through friends and contacts made previously. In short time I was persuaded to open an art space that would feature works by French artists based in Berlin (and there were a lot...) Expanding on their advice, I did not open a project room dedicated to only French artists, but to a network of international artists. From then on, the adventures of galerie5213 carried on until 2010 when for health concerns I decided to close it. In 2013, after an extended period of recovery, I decided to move to the island of my origins, Martinique. Since then I have founded and run espace d’art contemporain 14°N 61°W, an opportunity to develop a unique new platform for contemporary art, in Martinique and in the Caribbean. What do the names of Beauford Delaney, Philippe Derome, Jean Michel Basquiat, Hervé Télémaque mean for somebody of your generation? Great painters! Jean-Michel Basquiat is the most famous of them, but the others are considered as equivalent talents by my generation. Each of them, has brought with their art, a formidable input in painting and art making globally. They are all essential references.

prefer to exhibit? I work with artists with from a multiplicing of disciplines: painting, photography, conceptual art, video art, etc. What’s important for me is the essence of the work followed by my interaction with them as an artist. I have no particular preference, but I’d rather display an artwork that does not leave the viewer indifferent.

has no other choice but to get involved politically or socially? There are many choices, many frames of work in the art world. It depends on the relationships that the artists and their gallerists establish. The way one gets involved depends on many factors, ambitions, etc. As for me art is politics to a certain extent.

did you encounter, if any? The usual struggles to meet both ends and carry on with work. Who helped you the most to succeed? The artists who trusted me, my brother, my friends and my soul family. Are you happy with the way your career is going? so much more to do.

Carry on with Space d’art contemporain 14°N 61°W in the coming years, extending its network in the Caribbean and worldwide. Next I intend to start a project that exists in a cocoa plantation with a cottage that will serve as an artist residency.

Espace d’art Contemporain 14°N 61°W 19, rue du Mérite Artisanal Z.A Dillon 97200 Fort de France Martinique FWI +596 596 971887 14n61w.org

Jodie wears sweater by Cody Ross

Can you have everything? by BELINDA BECKER Photographs by PATRICK IBANEZ

Jodie Patterson

The native New Yorker grew up in Harlem with her mother Jamelle, her dad John, and her three sisters, Ramona, Sherri and Linda. Jodie went to an all girls’ high school. Her dad, John Patterson said: “She could go anywhere she wanted to go, but he would only pay for a black college.” She ended up at Spellman and fell in love with it, but knew that she wanted to come back to New York after graduation. a native Harlemite, he owned a company called SOBRO (South of Bronx), which dealt with the overall economic development in the called Patterson & Co. He also started a magazine called Citizen Call that dealt with cultural and business news. At the age of 14, Jodie’s vision of herself was “working on the top doing? She didn’t know. She earned a degree in literature with a concentration on the

writings of the African Diaspora. Quickly, she landed a job as a book editor at the New Press. Shortly after she relocated to NY, she met Serge Becker, downtown style maker, interior designer, club/restaurant owner. She saw that his life and work were inextricably intertwined, personally”. The idea intrigued her. So she quit her job as a book editor and tried her hand at a few different things: at a pet shop, as an acrobat at the big apple circus and as a nanny. Then through a friend, Dominic Trenier, who was managing a relative newcomer at that time, D’Angelo, she fell into music. She became Mr. Trenier’s assistant on the Voodoo album. As a sort of micro manager, she got to witness the music industry up close which lead to her starting Jodie Becker Media. Her clients included the African Film festival, Toure, writer/commentator for MSNBC, designer Susan Lazar, Cedella Marley’s clothing line, Catch a Fire, Joe’s Pub’s, Sean John, Russell Simmon’s publication, One World and many more.

Nevertheless, she always felt that she had a brand. How that would manifest, came many years later. Through her friend and editor of Teen Vogue, Amy Astley, she met fashion designer, Zac Posen and became head of his PR. There, she was in charge of celeb dressing, seating at his shows, travel, and acted as a liaison between Zac and Sean Combs who was his business partner at that time. Jodie found out within a year of working for Mr. Posen that she was pregnant with

Jodie wears dress by Vereda, ring by Cornelia Webb

that a 25 year old has.” And Jodie also looks up to her grandma, civil rights activist with movie star glamour, Dr. Gloria Blackwell, who adopted two boys, got her doctorate as a single mom and drove a yellow Cadillac. Besides running Doobop and Georgia Othello, 3, Penel, 6, Cassius, 8, Georgia, 15 and Nine, 22 (no blood one day and basically never left). Her average work week looks like

While on bed rest, a friend recommended the book, On Her Own Ground

for meetings. A typical day consists of a 6am wake-up call with the kids, 8:30 drop-off school or camp, 8:30 - 9 run/shower, 9:45 work at

Americans. This sparked the idea for her store, Georgia, named for her after school activities, 6 pm dinner break until 8 then work again until 11pm. Her personal style is romantic, “Everything I choose to put on

“But having it all does not mean balance. And for me balance is not the goal” YouTube beauty tutorial, “I Want That Look”, which he designed with Georgia, Jodie opened the store with his sister, Kiara Ellozy, a graduate from Harvard Business School. The store showcased high-end skincare and hair products from all over the world for women of color, including Jodie’s own line of plant and food based products, Georgia. She launched her own product line after four years of making contacts, testing ideas, and asking questions. In 2008, the recession hit and with it people’s spending habits changed drastically: “A simple venture to start became impossible to maintain”. Even though, the physical store closed, Jodie kept Georgia and continued to grow her website and blog about real women. She now sells at Whole Foods and select boutiques. “Beauty can be simple,” Jodie, explains her idea behind the line. “It’s a line for busy mothers and women who want to maintain their beauty regime without too much time and fuss.” All the products are interchangeable. Shampoo can double as body wash or hair lotion for face and body. All products are natural, food and plant based. “Beauty is an emotion. The times I feel the most beautiful is when I feel the happiest. It is a combination of inner and outer beauty. Inner in life. It is about the relationship you have with things. You cannot fake beauty. If it is not emanating from the inside, no amount of makeup or product will mask that. Beauty is universal, so the product is universal.” The name for her second company, Doobop, came randomly to her: “It was fun, whimsical, rhythmic, and provoked curiosity.” As the demographic of the country and the world changed, there were more and more brown people and she felt as if they were not being represented and catered to by the beauty industry. So she and her business partner Benjamin Burnett, who also shared her concerns, decided to start an online beauty company that catered to the needs of women with brown skin tones and textured hair. They showcase products from opposed to the “cookie cutter beauty” that was being expoused by the beauty industry. Jodie is the creative side of Doobop and Benjamin Burnett is the business side: “It is not a corporate approach. It is a real life approach, to live and work in the same eco- system.” As her role models she mentions recent CFDA award recipient Bethan Hardison, fashion maven and activist, who she sees as “strong, rapper Kilo Kish, who is “sweet, smart gypsy-ish nomadic... the lightness

means something. Jewelry belonged to someone else, clothing belonged to someone else.” She is drawn to layered looks, textures, patterns, different eras and colors. “You can never have too much color or too much gold.” She likes to show skin, especially arms and makes no exception for the winter. Her vibe is not trendy, designer or seasonal based and everything has to be functional. When asked if it was possible to have it all, a career and a great family life, Jodie responded, “I have the feeling of having it all. But having it all does not mean balance. And for me balance is not the and “as long as she made sure to touch each one everyday, she was love and business. Some days some touch points get more focus than others but she makes sure that each one is visited everyday.” “It is also very important to give back.” Jodie just received the congressional award for her community service. She learned that from her grandma and family. “It’s practically second-nature,” as she puts it. As for raising a family of mostly boys in a society that poses many challenges for African-American men, Jodie said, “ I’m very intentional with my kids, where we are, people around us, organizations that we involve ourselves in are chosen by us. That sets a good tone.” She wants to make sure that they always remain “in control” of both their situations and emotions. She worries about directing their focus in order for them to think instinctively, calmly and smartly. “If something does not feel right instinctively, remove yourself, if other kids are acting out in stupid dangerous ways, use your intelligence to make smart choices, and if situations and or people are getting hot, remain calm.” She advises: “Keep them close, focus on family, focus on school and give them a sports outlet. When they show you what they are interested in, let them go deeply into it.” Jodie says she will never stop aspiring for more. She wants Doobop to remain successful and relevant, Georgia Jodie says, “When I turned 40 I said I’m not wasting one more minute complaining and being self-indulgent because it’s time away from my kids.” Is it possible to have it all? Jodie Patterson believes so. Hair and make up by Phoenix Golden using Mac Cosmetics and Joico hair products Manicure by Phoenix Golden using Opi

A chef named Vigilant

Louis-Philippe standing vigilant outside Loiseau des Ducs, in the heart of Dijon, capital of Burgundy

by FRANCIS ROUSSEAU Photograph by MAHE ELIPE

At what age was your first memory of a kitchen and your first gourmet memory? Louis-Philippe Vigilant was preparing a cream of leek, potato and coconut milk with smoked pork belly. with old rhum agricole. How did you get interested into gastronomy? When I was a kid, I used to read a lot of culinary magazines and look at a lot of TV programs about gastronomy. One day, I came across TV show in which Chef Regis Marcon was doing a poached egg with lentils. I absolutely wanted to have that knack, this sleight of hand: poaching an egg and simmering good lentils. This curiosity made my passion grow with one thing leading to

another and now I have accomplished that feat. When did you decide to become a “master chef ” and what courses were involved? In which restaurants? I began my training to École Hotelière on the island of Martinique, where I was born. After that, I moved to the European continent in the south of France precisely to improve myself and continue my training for 4 years. I was able

to hone my craft with several “master chefs”, including Yves Thuriès in Cordes-sur-Ciel, the Pourcel Brothers in Montpellier, and Gerald Garcia in Pomarède. Ultimately, I earned a degree as a “culinary genius” with mastery in “the art of the table”. I applied for a job at Relais Bernard Loiseau in Saulieu, a 3 star restaurant among the best known in France headed by Chef Patrick Bertron. I stayed

there for 4 years attaining many essential attributes: discipline, a respect for taste, compliance with

second de cuisine. I spent two years in a kitchen where products from the Mediterranean were

With Chef Bertron, to cook properly is a matter of culinary evolution. From there I went to Jean-André Charial’s famous restaurant L’Oustau de Baumanière in Les Baux de Provence. Under the guidance of chef Sylvestre Wahid, I reached the rank of

regional produce, olives and tomatoes from the garden. During the winter, the L’Oustau de Baumanière team moved to Courchevel, a quite famous winter sports retreat in Europe, into the kitchen of the Strato, a palace in the snow. while there, I became familiar with many luxury goods:

crab, golden Oscietra caviar and some local delicacies. After two years at l’Ousteau the group position of “Chef de cuisine” in it’s new restaurant “Loiseau des Ducs” in the heart of Dijon, the capital of Burgundy. Eargerly I agreed and I work there now with great pleasure and total freedom. What has been your most memorable gustatory experience? Lobster with verbena prepared by chef Sylvestre Wahid, and egg prepared by chef Gilles Goujon of the three-star Fontjoncouse restaurant near Narbonne in the south of France.

and or social impediments did you meet in the course of your career as a “chef ”? I was very lucky because I have not met many. itself forged my character and my personality. I learned not to give up Perseverance paid many dividends. Who is the person or persons that most help you to achieve what you wanted to do? My family supported me a lot over the years and also my wife, with whom I’m currently working: she’s my pastry chef at Loiseau des Ducs. What foods do you prefer working on above all in the kitchen and how? Lobster roasted in butter and

in the fall lobster with porcini and sweetbreads masterful Mr. Loiseau intended. Being a chef étoilé (a chef with one star in the Michelin guide) is quite an achievement. How do you live with that title? It’s a great honor to have been recognized by Michelin guide for the way I am cooking. In addition being less than 30 years old, this is really a great source of pride for my team, my family and my island, la Martinique. My greatest pleasure is to give happiness to my customers, elicit a smile of surprise and leave a good impression of the time they spent at Loiseau des Ducs. How would you define what you offer to your customers?

An experiment? An adventure? A moment of joy? A pleasure? Something else… Well, it’s a bit of all of that. I love it when clients tell me they had a great time and will be coming back. Every day brings me moments of happiness. This is why I love my job so much. What are your plans for the near future? Go upmarket, and why not? Go and get a second star in the Michelin! Anything I haven’t asked that you’d like to say something about? Who or what inspires me when creating my recipes and in my evolution, my style? Please proceed, chef ! Cooking is about sharing, but it’s also an act of love. We must understand that

when we are cooking we must agree to give of oneself in the dish. One must give everything of himself to a dish to express himself. One must absolutely have a culinary emotion, a sensitivity. We must take risks in order to create that magic we bring to our customers to make them dream. My inspiration comes from my wife, my travels, childhood memories and the exceptional ingredients I use.

Loiseau des Ducs 3 rue Vauban, 21000 Dijon, France +33 3 80 30 28 09

“You get to a place where you realize you have nothing to lose. Nothing at all. Then you have no reason to bind yourself. I had no reason to hold on. I found it stupid to hold on, to close myself up and hold within me nothing. So I decided to try everything, to keep myself wide open to human beings, all human beings — seeing them as I understand them to be, not as they wish they were, but as I understand them to be. Very truthfully — not idealistically, but realistically. And seeing that if this person knew better, he would do better.” Maya Angelou by MASHA CALLOWAY Photograph by CHESTER HIGGINS Jr. Artwork by ZOLTAN+

Dr. Maya Angelou was an extraordinary woman whose life song was one of adventure and audacity. As a warrior, she was all of us rolled into one – mute child, homeless child, unwed mother, cable car conductor, short order cook, pimp and prostitute, dancer, singer, writer, poet, actress, professor, civil rights activist - she was a recipient of numerous accolades and a few condemnations. Speak up! Tell the truth! Stand up, stand out and sing for “there is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you.” Her story “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” was nominated for a National Book Award. Since then, she completed numerous essays, poems, and six other volumes of autobiography. She was nominated for a Tony Award, has three Grammy’s; she received the National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton and the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. She was “mothering, smothering, blackness... white tears icicle gold plains of her face, running, creeping... black arms, warm heart... a rich brown face, blameless, black and tall.” She was a teacher who taught that “you are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot.” “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, but because it has a song.” She was that bird. At the age of seven, she learned that her voice had the power to kill. The man who raped her was found stomped to death. Since she thought sharing the name of the man had caused his murder, she chose to become mute. For almost six years, she was a silent bird observing the world around her in segregated Stamps, Arkansas, where “southern trees bear strange fruit, blood on the leaves and blood at the root, black bodies swinging in the southern breeze.” One could witness “the bulging eyes and the twisted mouth” of a relative or neighbors. “Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees,” Billie Holiday would sing many years later to Maya Angelou’s only son, Guy.

her grandmother’s church and learned to love the faraway worlds contained in books. Bailey and Marguerite Johnson, brother and sister, traveled alone to Arkansas by train with notes pinned to their clothing. As four and three year old children, they relied on the kindness of porters to reach their grandmother’s house safely. These days, masses of from terror and poverty into the unknown. They rely on faith and rainbows. In the small town of cotton mills and timber, there was the seesaw of redemption and reality set on a fulcrum of racism. The saved kept their chins up. Bless the Lord, praise the Lord, yes Lord, I’m a witness for my Lord, our mighty Lord and Savior will save us by and

“You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen,

by, Amen - Good Lawd! “Poetry is music for the human voice. Until you actually speak it or someone speaks it, it has not come into its own.” The words of her teacher, Mrs. Bertha Flowers, bounced against the little girl’s belief that to speak is dangerous. Marguerite had to choose again. She reincarnates herself willingly into a song where “the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity, is daring to dare.” As her life rambled on, she would use her voice to express her truth in as many ways as opportunity would present. “She was never speechless,” relates close friend, Cicely Tyson. “She held nothing and spoke her mind, no matter what the situation was.” Marguerite became Maya, performing across oceans and in a variety of situations. Her grandmother, Momma Henderson, had taught her to “Just do right.” Sometimes, Maya Angelou’s “do right” was downright rude. Sassy and stubborn, she had to be the one to show others how not to bow down to convention. Moments of quick judgment and arrogance left her feeling “her face and neck

epitome of sophistication is utter simplicity.” “What I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes - it is inevitable. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, Well, if I’d known better I’d have done better, that’s all. So you say to people who you think you may have injured, I’m sorry, and then you say to yourself, I’m sorry. If we all hold on to the mistake, we can’t see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can’t see what we’re capable of being. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one’s own self. I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now mind you. When a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don’t have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach.” At seventeen, “the birth of my son caused me to develop enough courage to invent my life.” Over the years, “I learned to love my son without wanting to possess him and I learned how to teach him to teach himself.” From Malcolm X and Amiri Baraka, she learned there was courage in changing one’s long held beliefs. “You remember what I said before? Well, I thought it was true at the time, but I don’t believe that anymore.” She often stated that “Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.” Billie Holliday warned the statuesque calypso singer, “You can’t

heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot.” Maya Angelou

shared with comedian Dave Chappelle “Don’t pick it up and don’t put it down”, meaning, “Only listen to and rely on who you are inside.” If you accept neither the compliments nor the criticisms you can remain untouched by them and be your own person.

Gay, the Straight, the Preacher, the Privileged, the Homeless, the Teacher.” “The variety of our skin tones can confuse, bemuse, delight, I note

Maya Angelou said about her future obituary, “What I would really like said about me is that I dared to love. Love, that condition in the human spirit so profound, it encourages us to develop courage and build bridges, and then trust those bridges and cross the bridges in attempts to reach other human beings.”

alike, my friends, than we are unalike.” No matter where she went, the stench of bigotry was already there. Her vibrant brown skin probably glowed from the heat of impatience as she sat before the desk of a white receptionist who ignored the new mother trying to get a job. Eventually, she was ordered to see the “boy in the kitchen” and the “boy” shared stories with her about his own black children and grandchildren. Several years later, an African woman seated behind a desk at the Ghanaian Broadcasting Company, declared Americans as crude when Angelou treated her with superiority. Expatriots like Angelou wondered why they were in West Africa, expecting to be welcomed, yet not accepted as long lost sisters and brothers: “Being brought down is

“To grow up costs the earth, the earth. It means you take responsibility for the time you take up, for the space you occupy.

“How do we go on when the poet dies?” she asked when poet, Amiri The Lakota Indians say, “Mitakuye Oyasin - All beings are my relatives.” Having felt abandoned as a child, she understood that everyone longs for home, the tenderness and security of belonging. And, “You only are free when you realize you belong no place — you belong every place — no place at all.”

Facts often obscure the truth,” Dr. Angelou said. “You don’t have to tell everything you know, but try to make everything you say the truth as you understand it.” Dr. Angelou encouraged people to know their roots, to fully accept and realize where they come from and the hardships endured by their ancestors. “We were stolen, sold and bought together from the African continent. We got on the slave ships together. We lay back to belly in the holds of the slave ships in each other’s excrement and urine together, sometimes died together, and our lifeless bodies thrown overboard together.’’ “You are here because you’ve already been paid for. Someone has been a rainbow in the clouds for you whether you know it or not.” “All you really have to do is prepare yourselves so you can pay for someone who will come down the road.” “Because of the routines we follow, we often forget that life is an ongoing adventure… Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art: to bring notice and admit when what we expected to happen did not happen. We need to remember that we are created creative and can invent new scenarios as frequently as they are needed.” She travelled from Stamps to St. Louis, San Diego, San Francisco, Paris, Cairo, Accra, Los Angeles, New York, to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She met “the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew, the African, the Native American, the Sioux, the Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek, the Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheikh, the

Be who you are, be an inspiration who dares, who has the courage to love. Demand greatness. Allow greatness. Express gratitude. Cultivate elegance and a backbone for resistance. Be Forgiving. Be love.

Imagine walking a dirt path to school, stopping to pick up yellow dogs. Witness being called nigger, mouth cut by a sharp slice of not angry, you’re either a stone or you’re too sick to be angry – you should be angry – you must not be bitter – bitterness is like cancer, it eats on the host. It doesn’t do anything to the object of its displeasure. So use that anger, yes. You write it, you dance it, you march it, vote it. You can do everything about, you talk it. Never stop talking it.”

lose, to dare and to fail. And maybe even more, to succeed. What mean in truth. That’s what I write. What it really is like.”

Momma Henderson had taught her “When you get, you give; when you learn, you teach.” Dr. Angelou’s advice: “Be the best human being that you can be. Try to live your life in a way that you will not regret years of useless virtue and inertia and timidity. Take up the

battle, take it up, it’s yours, this is your life, this is your world. I’ll be leaving it long before you under the ordinary set of circumstances. You make your own choices. You can decide that life isn’t worth living. That would be the worst thing that you can do. How do you know so far? Try it, see. So pick it up, pick up the battle and make it a better world just where you are. Yes and it can be better and it must be better but it is up to us.”

“Every moment is the glory,” Maya Angelou’s voice sings. She thrills and cries and laughs all one after each other as she speaks. Her words - it’s as if she had tasted each one. They were carefully chosen and seasoned, to radiate from the tongue, to communicate with nothing held back -experience is the experience. For me, she was an amusing old black woman who had a cute little gap exposed between her teeth when she laughed, she was the “Caged Bird” lady, the one who read that amazing poem at Bill Clinton’s inauguration. Dr. Angelou was also part of a dwindling generation of people who marched for Civil Rights during a time of powerful assertion. “I speak to the Black experience, but I am always talking about the human condition--about what we can endure, dream, fail at and survive.” Reading, listening to the many Youtube videos of her interviews and speeches, propelled to wish for a encounter with her. I wanted to hear the deep melodic voice, wit-

remembrance of loved ones already gone. So many stunning people had been around her as brothers, sisters, students and teachers. James Baldwin, Alex Haley, Betty Shabazz, Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King, Tom Feelings, Ossie Davis - they all must have learned so much from each other, soaked in the blood of a certain time, not too far removed from the whip of slavery itself. What can we take from their paths such that we are not trapped in a labyrinth of times gone by? How will we ourselves contribute to future generations? “Storm, blow me from here

‘Til I can rest again.” (from “Woman Work”

Maya Angelou said about her future obituary,

“What I would really like said about me is that I dared to love. Love, that condition in the human spirit so profound, it encourages us to develop courage and build bridges, and then trust those bridges and cross the bridges in attempts to reach other human beings.”

The world of Obi Cymatica. The label is luxury by MAX WILSON Photographs by PATRICK IBANEZ

I recently met with the gentle and soft-spoken rising shoe designer Obi Cymatica at one of his favorite places to design, the Grand Hall of the Bryant Park library in Manhattan, for a conversation with him about his fascinating story as a young wunderkind in today’s extremely competitive world of high-end fashion design

Obi, which is African for “heart” was born into a family of doctors and lawyers in Madagascar

his teachers: “why are you always drawing Some people have diaries, but for Obi, his

he attented while living in Nigeria, which sometimes would get him into trouble with

At 16, he and his family moved to Forest

in high school where his self-taught drawing skills quickly caught the eye of his Art teacher who suggested to go see an exhibit at FIT, featuring the lavish work of John Galliano for Christian Dior. “I didn’t know you could get paid for this kind of thing”, he said as

the lightbulb went off in his head triggering his journey into the design world. First he applied to FIT, where he was rejected twice. Undaunted, he took up a semester at Parsons the New School for Design where he realized that his real passion was for designing shoes.

He then went to Budapest, Hungary where he received a BFA in Art history at the Hungarian Art College to enlarge his understanding of the art world or some similar reasoning. Returning to the States, he began a series of internships, starting at Pat Field’s

boutique in the Bowery where he ended up showing his portfolio of sketches to a customer who said to him. “You can’t be there, you need to intern at a fashion house”. Quickly he was up at the Kai Milla, where he interned for four months, then ventured off to BCBG,

there he started as an intern and quickly rose after a month to assistant shoe designer, where he remained for a year before joining Oscar de la Renta as shoe designer for collection for the next two years, exulting that it is the best fashion, the perfect place to learn collection, marketing and presentation. He then joined the luxury shoe house, Jimmy Choo, as a shoe designer for the American market for 3 years before he decided it was

made, a six platform pump in gray stingray with a red python heel would become the basis for the sleek and modern Obi Cymatica design aesthetic. “My woman is a woman who changes with time”, he says, describing the Obi woman; “She is an independent, power-woman: bold, feminine, strong, who wants to wear what no one else is wearing”. They are “Car-service-dressedup shoes”, he explains while smiling, although he wouldn’t mind seeing his impossibly chic shoes on the train! He cites Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron and Zoe Saldana as the type of woman he envisions wearing his glamourous

named “Meghan” which has sold out and “Kady”, a mesh high-heeled bootie stiletto in black. In September of 2013, he launched his Spring 2014 collection consisting of eight styles, evolving his vision to include a range of colors and textures such as bright green, patent leather, yellow python, black and white geometric color-blocked spike heels to rich neutral-toned nappa leather sandal-boots, all with innovative seaming and strap details. “Every shoe was an editorial shoe”, he says of the collection proudly. He began to get more press and repeat stylists and eventually was featured on Italian Vogue’s IT Vogue website. While he has gotten a lot of insider fashion press, what he’s looking for now is to be featured in more articles about him and his burgeoning brand. The collection is currently sold via his website obycymatica.net and a few high-end stores in Dubai and Belgium. The shoes are crafted by hand in Florence in the same factories that produce the Valentino Collection and Versace runway shoes. Their expertise would

an instant hit with the fashion press, he was prompted to add four more shoes to his line up subsequently he was featured on a website for editors looking for new designers that ultimately lead to a meeting with the Accessories Director of American Vogue and

stacked edges of a bi-colored T strap, the swirls and sweeping contrast-colored geometric inserts on a high-heeled bootie or cut-outs and straps in a rich embossed croc ankle boot that Obi envisions as a part of his imaginative range of shoes. His next goal is to widen his

a very positive response. Launching a full Fall Collection in

distribution and to be sold in stores such as

of his tremendous talent. After joining an LA showroom, he began receiving a lot of press

His design philosophy is unique: he doesn’t do previews or show mood boards to buyers, preferring to listen to his own inner voice, but will listen to comments from customers who have worn his shoes. He also doesn’t follow trends, except for color: “If everyone’s doing espadrilles, I don’t do them, but I have the color that’s trending” he adds. His customer, who is truly international, living in places all over the globe such as Brazil, China, Spain and London is also not the kind of woman

Bazaar Asia featuring a nude high-heeled boot with suede caging that was shot on the beach. Much to his chagrin, he was shocked at the condition that the shoes were returned to him in fresh from the beach, but was very pleased with the press none the less! He now personally tapes the bottoms of every shoe and takes extra care in preparing the shoes for shoots so that they will come back in good condition for use on other shoots and for sales. This is a lesson he believes that every young designer should learn. His collection also includes his “classics”: shoes he continues to produce: a black croc embossed high curve-heeled pump on an “island platform”

designer who love heels: “My customer

part of his range, notably in an edgy-looking stripy black boot. Despite the fact that the

heels on his shoes range from 3 1/2”- 5” his customers are pleasantly surprised of their comfort due to an insole that he was so clever to install. He wants his customer to feel free and to forget that she’s wearing them. One of the hallmarks of his look, which is very modern and geometric is the fact that his

Lou Teel Boots, Fall-Winter 2014/15

thing you see or you have to come closer to look at the details: the kind of shoe that looks simple from the outside, but there is a lot of architecture on the inside”, which guarantees

Press-shy and social media-savvy, his shoes are strictly editorial on his Instagram account, as he posts no photos of himself. When asked if he had further thoughts on the subject of his “Garbo-like status” he wonders, “How do you design what you want to design and not hide yourself?” About the role of blacks in fashion he has this to say: “Can you count on one hand the number of black designers on the level of a McQueen or a Wang?” He further adds that those big houses do employ black designers behind the scenes, buyers and even some black editors are surprised when they see that he is black after seeing his polished and sophisticated designs, expecting his shoes to be perhaps, more “urban”, which is puzzling

to him. “It’s crazy that there’s this whole black designer shoe stigma” he says quizzically. “Then there are the buyers who say conversely, wow your shoes are great, they should be in Saks!” “You meet designers from Spain and they’re not the “Spanish Designer”. Furthering the commentary, he says “I won’t do an African themed collection, because it’s not about me.” Although with his kind of talent, it would no doubt be an amazing collection! The future looks bright and very fruitful for Obi as he is devising a clever tactic: he is designing two collections simultaneously for Fall 2015 and Spring 2016 and releasing them at different times. he is also in the process of seeking out investors and is doing line. The new look going forward for Obi Cymatica: “Classy, simple, no”crazy colors”, no platforms, simple, gorgeous, easy”, he

says: “Black and nude have to be in every collection”, adds the gentle young man with a maturity far beyond his 25 years. Inspired by his favorite designer, Manolo Blahnik, his plenty of style and movement bursting from

every page. With his sketchbook in every hand, he starts sketching his newest design: a below the knee high-heeled stiletto boot sans platform, then adds contoured-curved seam detailing and a front zip and explains how the color of the seam can be changed

to mid-sketch and says “I start sketching, then start erasing”. Fashion in motion. That’s the essence of Obi Cymatica: the only label is “Luxury”.

Andrew Dosunmu by BELINDA BECKER Photographs by ANDREW DOSUNMU

We Winning, 2008 (Yaoundé, Cameroon)

He has directed music videos for Isaac Hayes, Angie Stone, Common, Tracy Chapman, Wyclef Jean, Kelis, Aaron Neville, Talib Kweli and Maxwell. He has directed

Cowboy 1, 2006 (Maseru, Lesotho)

premiered at Sundance: Restless City Mother of George Hot Combs, a story about black hair; and has also been a contributing photographer to such esteemed publications as Vibe, Clam, Fader, Face, Paper, Interview, i-D, Vogue Hommes, Complex and Ebony. Andrew Dosunmu, is a man of many images and few words. We meet at Hotel Particulier in NYC, the site of his last major photography exhibit entitled ‘Elsewhere with AC, sipping both water and cappuccinos. We start the conversation with, of all things, food. Dosunmu says all African diaspora cultures share rice & beans and plantains as a staple. This dish represents the common bond we of the African Diaspora share with each other and our ancestral relationship to Mother Africa, and it is this connection

culture. He goes on to tell a story his grandmother shares with him about boiling water in a calabash, the shell of a good fruit. The water bubbles up and will eventually lift the cover of the calabash. When asked about his upcoming projects he says his approach to his work is like the story of the calabash … “keep everything covered, let it boil itself over, letting out the energy bit by bit.” And in the end, the work will reveal itself for what it is.” Dosunmu is in the process of elaborate further, he preferred not to, saying, “I believe in the jinx.”

to be modest and not talk about himself. In his opinion, everything in the modern world is the complete opposite of the values he was taught. “It’s all about hype and not content,” he says of today’s

How does he negotiate his way through a world that champions hype over content? Dosunmu has no Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram.

Black Star, 2009 (Port Said, Egypt)

Bandit, 2009 (Harlem, NYC, USA)

His objective is to “decolonize colonial images.”

but never really experiencing it. Dosunmu prefers to keep his head down and work with his “team,” including Bradford Young, the brilliant director of photography whom Dosunmu has worked with

and, in his mind, the answer is as obvious as the sun in the sky. The

victims. I am interested in celebrating people who have been subject to colonialism, including people who have no voice… How do we to mind when you watch Mother of George.

audience is “any human being with emotion.” am not sure the way I’m working is the right way. I let my work speak for itself. Other people should write about it, critics, PR, etc. It’s not my job. My job is to create.” Two artists whom he admires are Sade and Bjork for obvious reasons. Currently Dosunmu is also working on a “bigger” photography show, expanding on the exhibit he just had at Hotel Particulier. He describes his work as a celebration of his subjects, “I am not interested in photographing anything negative.” His objective is to “decolonize colonial images.” Pointedly he says that most images of people of color are not by people of color. “We are more than

of storytelling as possible. As in the tales his grandmother used to In Nigeria, as in many African/Caribbean cultures, being an artist is not considered a real career. Most parents send their children to school in hopes of them becoming doctors or lawyers. Essentially,

through the storytelling. His aim is to duplicate those stories visually.

‘Hollywood’? “It would have to be for something I’d love to make,”

two people — that’s the visual. You make the story up.” Evocative is

that take time. I am African, we are not governed by the tyrant of the clock. We are governed by emotion and light.” Commanding color

theater. He has no problem if you don’t understand, as long as you are still thinking about it. Dosunmu gets understandably frustrated when asked who his audience is. He is always asked this question

learning to speak French. He had started going to the Alliance Francaise but Dosunmu became increasingly frustrated with lessons that focused mainly on grammar. He quit and, instead, started going

Djbril Diop Mambety, Visconti, John Cassavetes, Ousmane Sembene,

Yard, 2009 (Porto Antonio, Jamaica)

Preparing his process, he says everything starts with a picture, “Photos are my scrap book. It gives me the freedom to make cinema on paper. I write my script through photography. Restless City

Death In My Pocket - Kuti, 2010 (Kalakuta Republic, Nigeria)

I want to keep making things that make me happy.” Dosunmu would like to continue working with artists, such as Isaac de Bankole, who are not necessarily movie stars. He admires the career of Charlotte Rampling, saying that he sees her as a “worldly actor,” someone who

Dosunmu says he then started wondering what this guy’s life was like before and after he got to the street corner? What did his world never get lost in translation, that people all over the world can relate to emotionally.” Thus comes this notion of “seamlessness” a word photography to transcend borders and to answer the question of how to communicate without language.

the means to make them. “I am not planning to be rich, it’s too late.

don’t want to be certain. It’s the fear of not knowing that excites me, plotting, working, the act of creating.” It is now an hour and a half into the interview. Dosunmu smiles and says, “I think you have enough.” He is leaving for Zimbabwe the next day. No more words, just on to the next images.

“It’s the fear of not knowing that excites me, plotting, working, the act of creating.”

Kuoth Wiel, African beauty by STEVEN TATE Photographs by MARCO PIANA Styling by GIANNIE COUJI

As cinematic debuts go, 24-year-old actress Kuoth Wiel could do a lot worse than co-starring with Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon in a major autumn release. own Oscar for her work in “The Good Lie”. Playing a Sudanese resonates with her, as her own situation mirrors her character’s: her older brother was a “Lost Boy”, one of 20,000 male youths who were forced into becoming soldiers in the Second Sudanese Civil War. And she lost her father, a UN aid worker, to the authenticity to her portrayal, an essential element in an American

Shirt by Norisol Ferrari, trousers by Dominic Louis

Sweater by Cody Ross, trousers by Chloe, boots by Pedro Garcia

What do you consider yourself? I’m an actress/writer/activist.

sense of intervention in the open sense, but there is always an economic mover in

And your nationality? I’m South Sudanese, I was born in Ethiopia and I moved to the US when I was eight. So

resources, so other parties always have an

my people are nomads. I read that you had no intention to act until this role in “The Good Lie” came up.

That’s why we need transparency: we need to know who’s backing what politicians, and why. Then people can bring peace. The term “African-American” has come

ability to create a wider array of roles and art. I think Lupita’s great and I can’t wait to see what she does next. But very often, there’s only room for one minority female on top: People create tension, saying it’s Beyoncé versus Rihanna, or Tyra versus Naomi. Models Chanel Iman about it in the modeling industry – where casting agents for fashion shows will say,

differentiate from a West Indian American My personal connection to it. My mother sent my older brother to Kenya because the government told women that they were sending these boys to boarding school (shakes her head). She had no idea. I heard

your welcome to the US different from white Americans than African-Americans? to the US, we were in an African-American

degree in psychology. The chance to audition came up, and I had already been doing some modeling back home in Minnesota – so I was used to working in front of a camera. And I wanted to be a part of telling this story.

Then there were cultural misunderstandings… and we moved into a white community, where there was a different set of cultural misunderstandings. Regardless the US is still great country for me.

You’ve also become active in South Sudan Women United, a group campaigning for an end to the violence. How do you balance all that? Normally I don’t like to get political, but we all want peace. In South Sudan, it’s army against army – and the people have gotten dragged into it. They’ve turned political differences into ethnic differences – exploiting tribal differences for political gain. The situation has been building up for a while: that’s why women outside of South Sudan have come together to speak out for peace.

Is it home? That’s a tricky question. In South Sudan, I’m considered an outsider because I was born in Ethiopia. “You’re not a real Sudanese.” But I left Ethiopia when I was eight, so I’m not really Ethiopian. And I’m not really at home in Minnesota, the one place I’ve lived longer than anywhere else. So I’m an outsider wherever I am.

Are solutions to South Sudanese issues something that will be homegrown, or is it garnering international attention from those outside the South Sudanese community? Africans don’t really have a

It’s great when people speak out and bring it to light. Of course, there’s racism – but it’s a lot more subtle today. So we just work against it.

doors are opening in terms of beauty, acting, etc. for African actresses in Hollywood. What It’s great. It shows that people are becoming even more open to a range of diversity. Talent will always reveal itself, and now we have the

I don’t like to limit myself. I’d like to more drama, but I also love comedy. I’m now working on improv, and I love acting on stage. When you hear of race issues in the West, compared to the issues in South Sudan? Problems are still problems. A friend from Milan says she’s only Italian when she leaves Italy: inside her country, the same sense of solidarity amongst South Sudanese? South Sudanese – even in the diaspora. I think you’ll always have a tribal identity that makes you who you are, and that’s great. But it doesn’t mean that we can’t all live together, and that we call can’t mix. I’d like to travel and visit and live in many different places. a generational thing: for younger people, differences don’t really matter.

Shirt by Kaimin, jacket by Chloe

Waistcoat and shorts by Norisol Ferrari, vest by Kaimin, hat by Robert Geller, boots by Pedro Garcia

Dress by Kaimin, sneakers by Converse

Dress by Norisol Ferrari

“In South Sudan, I’m considered an outsider because I was born in Ethiopia. ‘You’re not a real Sudanese.’ But I left Ethiopia when I was eight, so I’m not really Ethiopian. And I’m not really at home in Minnesota, the one place I’ve lived longer than anywhere else. So I’m an outsider wherever I am.”

Dress by Norisol Ferrari, shoes by Pedro Garcia Hair by Raquel Martuscelli at Solo Artists Make up by Pas Poma using Face Stockholm Special thanks to Laduree-Soho, Pierre-Antoine Raberin and Michka Bengio

Betina La Plante by MASHA CALLOWAY

Tess, Ojai, California 2010

Betina La Planteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s photographs remind me of the poetry of Pablo Neruda where people, places and things are of texture, light and space. Emotion is inferred, understated, in in the narrative. Evanescent and sculptural, her photographs reveal and hide. They are squares and rectangles of textured surface where one can dream, ponder, and wonder.

Now and then, Ojai, California 2012

Gino Hollander, Ojai, California 2009

Polito Ulloa, Buenos Aires, Argentina 2014

Duilio Marzio, Buenos Aires, Argentina 2013

Man on street, NYC 2009

Her humans remind me of plants and elements in the natural world. Her landscapes come across as human. A beard looks like a tangle of dried roots. Skin is as smooth as a pebble or as varied in texture as light on beach sand at certain times of day. Wrinkled men have hands that are elegant, lined and weathered. Clouds curl like hair while trees twist and reach. It’s as if blood

is pumping from those roots. Betina, in self-portraits, becomes her trees, sensual and sinewy. Even shadows can be amusing and touching as deformed black shapes. white portraits. What is also present is a quality of steadiness in the eyes of her subjects. Beyond what the person looks like, as beautifully portrayed as they are, her people share hints of vulnerability and emotion which the viewer can approach and feel held by in a glimmer of welcome.

Articulate in word and vision, Betina is calm and subdued, frank and thoughtful. She laughs often and speaks about her sons with

objects as her mind creates the ideas that her voice enunciates in ssss’s that slide and frequent exclamations of “Oh, gosh!”

“Just because the portrait may be of someone else, it can still be an expression of yourself. A collaboration, it’s a bit of everyone, the camera, photographer, environment, subject.”

Connecting to that “character-full” face means connecting to the possibility that the person may be just as averse to being in front of a camera as she is. It’s all about reciprocation. Before bringing her camera out, she will “get to know a little about them, let them know a little about me, expose myself as much as I can so they can feel that maybe they can expose themselves. It goes down to an animal thing. It’s an energy, how you react to the person and how you react to the tools that they have. I think it should be a collaboration because you’re likely to get more from the experience if you both are giving. I relish that time that I have in doing the portrait, the communication, getting to know someone. I’ve found a lot of people have an inner image of what they think they should look like or want to look like. It’s not necessarily the best or the most natural. Once we get past that and there’s a certain comfort level between us established, they start forgetting to do the acting bit. Maybe, it was not their intention or one that had more emotion in the shot, because there was a complete let down of barriers. It was an honest moment.” Like her people, her places are treated with awe and fascination. “I can appreciate landscape photography. With a portrait, I can see a moment captured – for example, with Irving Penn - I would love to know more about that person, what was going on. I start imagining what the person would be like. It speaks to me in a way that engages me. And the mystery remains in the photograph. With the landscape, I think witnessing something is a lot more emotionally powerful in person than seeing a picture of it. It’s like a whole other universe so much that we’re these little specks. They put you in perspective. Being there is a lot more humbling.”

Tomas, San Antonio de Areco, Argentina 2012

As we share a fondness for lapsang souchong tea and lots of ginger at a of her work and what she strives for. There were always cameras hovering around her family. Rather than for and received her own while attending boarding school in London. After moving to Rome to attend drama school, her big adventure with photos began in a windowless bathroom unused on evenings and weekends. There, she found a place to foster a love for the “process of making something without me having the ability to draw or paint like my

and then, Oh, my gosh! It’s dark already! I wouldn’t say I had a clue as to what I was doing but it was really fun and kind of magic just experimenting. Maybe, I gravitated to being able to create and to do things totally on my own without having the need to interact with other people. It became a world that I wanted to be in. And, I could lose myself for hours.” She speaks with excitement about the people in her pictures, their faces, hands and eyes. “It’s not even what is beautiful - it’s what appeals. For some people, it is maybe an outward beauty. For me, it’s more than that. It’s the inner self. What appeals is character, the sense that these people have been living and how it’s showing. It doesn’t matter how old they

rediscovering what is most important in an image or listening to a colleague’s critique on exploring new ways to expand her vision. “You can over-bake,” she says. “In terms of earlier work, they were over baked, over thought. Rather than going with your instinct, your natural thing, suddenly you start experimenting. It doesn’t into portraiture. In the processing part, maybe I went heavy handed thinking I had to accentuate character. The natural texture of the

or pull process, the grain that determined how the result was going to be. I revisit because, now, I process more in the way that I would in a darkroom. With all this mass of tools available, one click will give me an instant result. You can get seduced by all the choices and the choices are very seductive. Pre-sets get overused and everything starts looking like everything else, everyone starts looking the same. You lose your voice, your individuality. It’s nice having the possibilities as long as you can make them your own. You learn as you go along. I was so enamored with the square that, sometimes, I paid the price in the Unless it’s Instagram, in which case I have a great time. It’s nice to have an outlet for me, playing where it becomes more of a fun thing. I don’t always want to take photography really that seriously. On Instagram, I allow myself the freedom of doing things that I wouldn’t do necessarily.” “Everything is there for you to play with, to experiment with, you can break the rules and at the same time know why they exist. Sometimes, breaking the rule adds something that jars a little, gives something that might have been missing.”

nothing but to become these giants. So, it’s hard not to take a picture of something like that. The biggest compliment that someone has paid me on that particular tree picture is that it was like this living organism and it had character, an identity.”

“A friend of mine said to me I would love to see you be as honest in your portrayal of women as you are in your portrayal of men. You tend to sugarcoat women or try to. I think what he was saying is that I will shoot them in the best possible light without necessarily allowing that honesty. It was a criticism saying that I’ve got to be more adventurous, with women. He might be right about that. There are a few people that I will trust their opinion. I trust them to come from a place of being honest in order to make me aware, to grow. It’s great to have someone who keeps me on my toes, who gives it to me straight, who will give criticism that is actually productive and that pushes you forward. “

and release what no longer suits her, especially if it takes away from emotion in the image. Challenge can come in the form of

When Betina speaks, she puts volume in her words through the motion of her hands. It’s a kind of wind, wanting to touch. Her photographs are the terrain whose topography goes backwards and

Though she says she doesn’t really shoot landscapes, when she does, they emit vibrancy and life. For example, there is the photo of a powerful trunk that stretches out like the body of a dancer. These trees, found in Buenos Aires, are “Gomeros,” says Betina. “I feel this compulsion to try and capture something because they

Gomero, Buenos Aires, Argentina 2014

Self, Ojai, California 2012

For some, it could be a matter of admiration. Others present work and fall into the trap of “thinking that’s how they need to be. If that’s what success is like, I’d better do something like that. You forget or lose track of what you loved about photography or what drew you to

insecure business you know. With all the applause in the world, you only hear that one boo! It’s like a megaphone. That’s human nature. We always get stuck on the negative rather than the positive.”

is almost pushed aside. It’s hard to take a step back and say Okay,

sometimes, I do. That’s why I re-visit a lot of my earlier work. I was trying to do something like such and such a person but that’s not how I feel about that image. I re-process and it sits better with me. I’m trying to stay honest to my original thing and not get into the copying.

There is something sensual in experiencing that, at any moment, something subtle will appear and the shutter will be pressed.

“How do you keep your name alive in terms of promoting yourself ? You have social media presence. This wouldn’t be happening if I weren’t on Facebook. One of my biggest paid jobs came from 500px. If I didn’t have the presence, who knows about it? So, you are battling for a place to stand out more than others but, in order to keep standing out so no one forgets you, you have to promote your work . I think there’s a way to promote it without being aggressive. Rather than bombarding people with requests to like me on Facebook, get it through your work. Let your work speak. There’s an art to self-promotion. It’s necessary and there’s a balance between learn new things. I follow mainly photographers. I like expressing who you are with pictures. Exposing one’s self through a picture, you’re not saying anything, you are showing what you like, what moves you.” In photography, no matter what kind, part of the thrill is in waiting. There is something sensual in experiencing that, at any moment, something subtle will appear and the shutter will be pressed. Within the space, “something really special is happening. It’s instant. It’s Something starts, it’s a mixture of - it’s hard to describe. There is something that starts churning. I would say it’s almost like adrenalin. It’s not like a happy feeling. Sometimes, it’s an anxious feeling. I’m not sure. It’s when you know it’s about to… that kind of intensity when other things take over. Is it trepidation? Excitement? You don’t know which way it’s gonna go. Yeah, it almost feels like an adrenalin rush. I’ve got to get that!” Betina’s face looks as though she is about to get on a motorcycle. Her eyes gleam. Laughing, we both want to get up and go take pictures,

forwards and around. There is dimension there and that dimension is tactile and alive. Part of it is given by an enthusiasm for breaking new ground in her personal vision. “Portraiture and people - it’s my photographical comfort zone - it’s my blankie. With street photography, I’ve got to overcome my personal fears. It’s pushing my boundaries and I think it will widen my horizons. For me, maybe I will be pleasantly surprised that

What I’m trying to do is to explore more, experiment more. It doesn’t mean I want to change my style. Like life in general, in photography, you don’t progress without making a few mistakes. It teaches you what you like, what you don’t like, what resonates with you. That’s why, going back to the practice - gotta keep doing it - practice and practice and practice.”

everything that’s going on, and see it in a particular way, and make it interesting - all within the moment that it’s presented to you rather

in such a competitive market where professional photographers, accustomed to reputation and grand fees, are being replaced by amateurs found among social media sites who will work for free. She asks, “How do people who want to be a photographer distinguish themselves in a mass of photographs and photography?”

so immediate. I guess I’m frightened of not doing it, not getting it. If I don’t shoot, I’m not gonna get anything anyway.” “Growing as a photographer will be more about facing fears.

She continues, “Whether it’s an emotion or there’s a chemical vibe, recognition. The only way to hone that instinct is to be patient and to practice it. Photography is a practice. Even established and amazing photographers will say they shoot every day just to keep those sensory things alive and ready because things happen. How did you get that shot? A lot of them reply, Oh, I was lucky. Luck can happen to anyone. If you’re not ready, you’ll miss it. You have to practice to be receptive and ready for those moments.”

there is an aspiration to discover and be true to oneself. As Confucius says, “It does not matter how slow you go as long as you do not stop.” Betina shares, “You can get into a habit because it’s comfortable.

nothing to whoever’s looking – it leaves someone cold or you forget about it. If people say I want to know more about the person or Oh, my gosh! What was happening in that moment? suddenly, you’ve got an engagement, a connection. The biggest compliment anyone can tell me is That picture stayed with me. I think that connection with whoever is looking - whether it’s in a book or on an art gallery wall or on a computer screen - that makes it successful.” “Photography has given me an identity to cling onto. A lot of people ask, What are you? It’s become a silly tagline. I say I’m a fulltime mom and an occasional photographer because the bottom line is that bringing up the kids has taken up most of my time and photography has slotted in when I can. Obviously, the older they get, the more time I have, which is why I’ve gotten into taking photography more seriously just recently. The kids are older and I have more time to do that.” “When you press the shutter and it makes that clunk and it’s a real mechanical clunk and then the winding and you hear the whirr - there’s something about that. It’s part of the magic. This passion, photography, it’s something that is just mine, just me. A way of depending on what you’re experiencing. It goes back to that collaboration, communion of things. Sometimes, you communicate it can still be an expression of yourself. A collaboration, it’s a bit of everyone, the camera, photographer, environment, subject.” “If it’s no fun anymore, then I don’t even want it. To stop being fun or pleasurable or lose that adrenalin rush - when it stops being fun, yeah well, the money’s great but if I don’t enjoy it… I’d rather enjoy photography and keep enjoying it. Photography has opened up an appreciation for everything around me. It’s easy just to take things for granted because it’s what we see every day. Especially when I carry a camera in my hand, I start noticing things that maybe I wouldn’t have noticed if I didn’t have a camera. So now, I have a camera at all times just to remind me to look to really look and see. If a tornado were to strike down, I would pick up a camera. It’s one of those things that I’ve never witnessed before - wow!”

Creative Direction by Zoltan+ Paris / San Francisco Photographs by JONAS MÁTYÁSSY Styling by ANNA KOVALIK

Double Cone necklace

Harp bracelet

Paper ring

Monolith neck piece

Window ring

Jewelry PIROSKANNA by Piroska Anna Darรกnyi Make up by Natasa Kovalik Hair by Mark Karolyi Model Mariann Vella

A can of red. Cinematographically it was perfect. the lobby of my building when a car pulled up and took me to Buda, the old, residential part of Budapest. In the rain the white cobblestones of the narrow streets looked quite spectacular, like we had traveled back in time. I arrived at an ancient, one-story townhouse, built by one of the Counts of Esterhazy and although the building itself was in the heart of Buda’s castle district, it country house. Very rarely I have seen such beauty and contrast. Piro, (as her friend Jonas calls her) led me through to her quarters and when the deluge ceased we set down under the arches, breathing in the fresh, after-rain smell. Piroska Darányi is a young, up and coming jewelry designer from Hungary. It is my second time with her, as we had met previously during one of my trips to Budapest. Piro pulled out a large box full of pictures and her work. From there our conversation took off. by ZOLTAN+ Photographs by JONAS MÁTYÁSSY Styling by ANNA KOVALIK

Piro, how does the “red can” come into your story? I had this object, when I was a child… an old fashioned, metal water can, which at that time symbolized “growth” for me. While other girls played with dolls, I was watering plants, trees, walls, whatever came my way, to make them grow. Later, when I was a bit older, this symbol became my company’s hallmark. Jonas, who is a great photographer, helped me to think of a strong and easily pronounceable name and we came up with PIROSKANNA, playing on my name, which is in fact piroska + anna. “Piros” means red in Hungarian and “kanna” means watercan. He did a quick drawing for the logo and I instituted the brand. Your collaboration with Jonas seems pretty intense.

Yes, we are together 24/7 and not just as good friends. Our ideas run super-parallel. He helps me a lot with photography, graphic design and brand-presentation and I try to inspire him with my painstaking organization. You formed your current team with good friends. It just happened naturally. Although, I work totally alone, from the conceptual stage to the actual production, everything is made here by hand. My friends, who come from contributed to what I was doing. What I love the most is that our collaboration is totally stress-free. Where does your inspiration come from? Visions, I suppose… I have no idea. When I was in school, following my parents to

Finland, between 1997-2001, I was totally taken by the pure aesthetics, the simplicity and practicality of the country, which were very different from the typically, often overdecorated Hungarian style. I would say travelling still plays a huge part in my life. It is very inspirational, not just creatively, but humanitarianly as well.

It depends on how you wear them, how much you feel they are a part of your body… if they blend into your character, seamlessly, or just intrusive and uncomfortable.

Diana Vreeland’s or Edith Sitwell’s style? They were famous for wearing oversized,

They are absolutely inspirational! It would be rather boring, if I looked at rigid cubes all the time. Their style is not mine, but when I look at them, I ask myself… “Would I always think only in terms of geometry, or would I go later into a different direction?”

Yes, they are unique, because everything is hand-made and lot of attention is given to the details and quality. But recently we have been thinking of a high-end, small batch production.

hardly Ali Baba’s cave. materials here and often we have very little

I chose a white shirt – clean cut, to focus on what you are going to ask me…

with them on a special mission? Vendome is too much for me. My lines are very different, I am a much freer person, but have to admit, their quality and production are breathtaking.

“quality and individuality are two very important things for me

Women here, like everywhere else, like to be beautiful, but it does not always happen in a stylish way. Often they look… well, too obvious, too much. Fortunately there are some exceptions. My customers are mainly

something unique. And I love designing for them. If you don’t mind me saying, I see strong contrast between you, as a person and your designs. You appear to be gentle, delicate,

to choose from, unlike abroad. Even in Vienna, which is only two hours away, I am totally amazed by the choice and the quantity of supply. Maybe that is why I pay so much attention to detail, to make sure at the end that I have what I wanted. As far as materials are concerned, I mostly use plexi, wood and metal, believe it or not, I go to hardware stores more often than fashion stores. I have not worked with precious stones yet, they reside in my drawers, waiting for the right moment.

concrete at the moment. Will we be seeing some diamonds in concrete soon? Maybe not diamonds, but certainly a collection with lot of humor and irony, based on concrete. Experimenting is essential for me.

balanced and consider myself as a happy person.

You spent a brief time at MOME for your BA diploma, but decided to continue your studies elsewhere. Why? My BA studies were OK, but I am practical and determined. I am not afraid to do the work myself. I do not want anyone to do it for me, to take it out of my hands, or to take over. So I had to learn every step, every stage. I also wanted to learn traditional techniques. Eventually I went to another school and learned how to be a goldsmith.

a river.

to mold, or are you more of a person, who is inspired by material and textures, driven by spontaneous decisions? Both… actually all of it! I am very organized and conscious with work, but at the same time, when I am at the conceptual stage, I am totally able to block out the world and dive into the unknown. When my mind switches off, I am more into material and molds and textures. I charge myself, like therapy. It is not a beta-stage for me.

pieces, right?

remote country? Personally, I do not feel so remote. I worked hard to make my work visible. There are a handful of talented designers in Hungary, but commercially they are very closed-up and limited. The schools, for example, do not teach them how to be creative or successful in business. We are kind of left alone to learn it in our own way. I love one designer, designs, often they are more installations and art-objects.

based on geometry. Hahaha… sometimes even I am surprised. But when someone is deeply in the creative stage, it is totally allowed to be raw and rough, bashing limits. However, I can still be

Three words to describe yourself.

Are there many Hungarian designers,

I consider myself European, my Hungarianess comes out in the kitchen, when I am cooking.

today? I do, but they are invisible… it depends on what mood I am in. So, what is your mood now?

Where can we buy your designs? Currently, I am much happier to take special, private orders, move in small circles and present my collection on-line, than selling in a shop. Like this, each time, even for a short time, I can build a personal relationship with my customer and make sure, that the piece will absolutely suite her character and needs.

plan? Like everyone else in business, I would also like to make it grow, but only to the extent, where I can still fully control the work and the production myself. I cannot emphasize enough, that quality and individuality are two very important things for me and I will not

Have you thought of presenting your Sure… who wouldn’t? I’d love to present my next collection in New York even as an installation, art-event.

Make up by Natasa Kovalik Hair by Mark Karolyi

Top by Esosa, cropped trousers by Norisol Ferrari

All about Sharam Photographs by PATRICK IBANEZ Styling by GIANNIE COUJI

Top by Odd, skirt by Dominic Louis, gloves by Norisol Ferrari, hat by Golden Gate Hat Company

Dress by Sophie Theallet, ring by Cornelia Webb, shoes by Pedro Garcia

Coat by Maison Martin Margiela, sunglasses by Oliver Goldsmith

Top by Kithe Brewster, trousers by Norisol Ferrari

Tee shirt by Rick Owens, chainmail top by Cornelia Webb, skirt by Esosa

Dress by Kithe Brewster, shoes by Chrissie Morris, gloves by Vereda

Jacket by Norisol Ferrari, skirt by Esosa, shoes by Chrissie Morris

Sweater by Esosa, trousers by Norisol Ferrari, earrings by Valentina Kova

Sweater and boots by A. F. Vandevorst, leg warmers by Valentina Kova, belt by Alaia, bracelet by Cornelia Webb

Top and ring by Valentina Kova, skirt by Kithe Brewster, bra by La Perla

Top by Kithe Brewster, skirt by Alaia, bra by La Perla, belt by Norisol Ferrari, shoes by Walter Steiger

Bustier and skirt by Kithe Brewster, bra by La Perla, gloves by Valentina Kova

Hair by Raquel Martuscelli at Solo Artists Make up by Pas Poma Styling assistance Marieme Diop Model Sharam Diniz at Next Models Shot at Monsieur Brewster Atelier Special thanks to Kithe

Jacket by Serkan Cura Haute Couture

Metallic chic Photographs by TIZIANO MAGNI Styling by GABRIEL VAZQUEZ

Dress by Gareth Pugh

Coat by Junya Watanabe, body by Wanda Nylon, boots by Gareth Pugh

Top and skirt by Alaia, boots by Ernest

Headpiece by Maison Michel

Hair by Paolo Ferreira at Calliste Make up by Marielle Loubet at Calliste Photographic assistant Emmanuel de Jorna Digital Technician Frank Puya at JRM Retouching View Imaging NY Model Marjolaine at Viva Paris Shot at Studio Sala Paris Special thanks to Sala

Sunday stroll in Harlem Photographs by PATRICK IBANEZ Styling by GIANNIE COUJI

Dress by Chloe, necklace by Cornelia Webb

Dress by See by Chloe

Dress and belt by Esosa, necklace and bracelet by JVDF, ring by Cody Ross

Dress by Koonhor, hat by Nathaniel Cole, shoes by Christian Laboutin

Dress by Jennifer Chun, top by Odd, necklaces by JVDF, shoes by Lacoste

Sweater by A. F. Vandevorst, skirt by Valentina Kova

Jacket by Kithe Brewster, tee-shirt by Jacob Vu for Minseye, skirt by A. F. Vandevorst, boots by Obi Cymatica

Top by Jennifer Chun, skirt by Charles Warren, shoes by A. F. Vandevorst

Jacket by Esosa, tee-shirt by Jacob Vu for Minseye, trousers by Valentina Kova

Jacket by Jennifer Chun, shirt by Sophie Theallet, trousers by Esosa

Jumpsuit by Maison Martin Margiela, boots by Pedro Garcia

Dress by Maison Martin Margiela, belt by A. Friend by A. F. Vandevorst, shoes by Pedro Garcia

Shawl by Valentina Kova, tee-shirt by Jacob Vu for Minseye, trousers by Norisol Ferrari, shoes by Lacoste, belt hat stylistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own

Cardigan and trousers by Sophie Theallet, shirt by A. F. Vandevorst, ring by Cornelia Webb, shoes by Heschung

Hair by Raquel Martuscelli at Solo Artists Make up by Pas Poma using CK One Models Ella Verbene at IMG and Symone Challenger at Supreme Special thanks to Pascal

Second skin Photographs by AUDISHO & MAXIMILIEN Styling by ROMAIN LIEGAUX

Bomber jacket by Wanda Nylon, dress by Fendi, bracelets by Alexandre Vauthier, shoes by Gianvito Rossi

Jacket by Amaya Arzuaga, trousers by YProject, necklace by Alexandre Vauthier, clutch by Yliana Yepez, shoes by Gianvito Rossi

Jacket, tee-shirt, trousers and jewelry by Alexandre Vauthier, sleeveless metal top by Alexandre Delima

Jacket by Is Not Dead, vest by Jean Colonna, body by Jitrois, trousers by Club Monaco, belt by Lanvin, earrings stylistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own, big cuff by Herve Van der Straeten, small cuff by Alexandre Delima, small bracelet by Alexandre Vauthier, shoes by Gianvito Rossi

Dress by Lanvin, bracelet by Herve Van der Straeten, belt by Alexandre Delima

Coat by Stella McCartney, dress by Amaya Arzuaga, belt by Wolford, sunglasses by Mykita

Jacket by Wanda Nylon, top by YProject, trousers by Amaya Arzuaga, hat by Lanvin

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Jacket by Chloe, top by Alexandre Vauthier, trousers by Acne, bracelets by Chloe, shoes by Roger Vivier

Make up by Hue Lan Van Duc Hair by Cicci at Calliste Styling assistant Benjamin Simeoni Model Marieme Hoang-Gia at Next Models

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Top by Valentino, skirt by Alaia

Black and white and red all over Photographs by TIZIANO MAGNI Styling by GABRIEL VAZQUEZ

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Sweater by Wanda Nylon, skirt by Jean Colonna, shoes by Rochas

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Jacket and skirt by Alaia, shoes by Rochas

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Top by Victor & Rolf, hotpants by Helmut Lang, long cuff gloves by Thierry Mugler Vintage

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Bolero from le souk, top by Chanel, underwear by Agent Provocateur

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Mini cape by Alexander McQueen Vintage, skirt by Karoline Lang, shoes by Rochas

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Top and knickers by Sophie Theallet, gloves by Christopher Kane

Hair by Paolo Ferreira at Calliste Make up by Audrey Gautier Photographic assistant Emmanuel de Jorna Digital Technician Frank Puya at JRM Retouching by View Imaging NY Model Luisa Blanchin at Viva Paris Shot at Studio Sala Paris Special thanks to Sala

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Robe by American Apparel, monocle from Sommier, Paris

Japonisme Photographs by INAKI Art Direction and Make-up by TOPOLINO Styling by MELANIE BRAULT

Blouse by Dice Kayek, panties by Alexandre Vauthier, hat by Benoit Missolin

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Hat by Benoit Missolin

Jacket by Alaia, glasses from

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Fabric from Boutique Moline, Marche St. Pierre, Paris

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Crown from Sommier, Paris, gloves stylistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own

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Top by Alexandre Vauthier, mask from Topolinoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s private collection

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Top by Tsumori Chisato worn as a dress, mask from Topolinoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s private collection

Photographs by Inaki at Yumikoto Paris Art direction and make up by Topolino at Calliste Styling by Melanie Brault Hair by Henry Olivier at Yumikoto Paris Photographic assistant Jeremie at Studio Zero Retouching by Jerome and Fanny c/o Odalisques Models Elise at Premium and Lily Bonneau Special thanks to Fred and Valerie Lefort Shot at Studio Zero Paris

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James Baldwin Place A groundswell had been rising all day, marked by events on what would have been James Arthur Baldwin birthday. It peaked when the singer-songwriter Imani Theater with a spiritual that echoed in your bones and brought your soul to attention. Uzuri, a self-described “queer” schooled in the gospel tradition, was the embodiment of James Baldwin and is one of the latest incarnations of talented black artists propelled by his known by his intimates, was repeatedly described as “audacious”, “gracious” and “kind” by such luminaries as Seret Scott, George Faison, Woody King Jr. The actor Danny Johnson cautioned the audience to take him in small doses while others hailed him as a revolutionary. James Baldwin manifested all these traits but what

talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, but most of all, endurance.” James Baldwin, with Marlon Brando, at the Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C., August 28th, 1963, the day of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech

by WARREN REICH

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sincerely believed that “the world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way... people look at reality, then you can change it.” His novels and plays deal with acceptance, both internal and external, in an intolerant world unwilling to embrace integration due to racial, sexual and genderbased division. He focused on the other, highlighting their humanity and the consequences of discovering the other within oneself. In an NBC/TV interview he stated, “All men are brothers. That’s the bottom line. If you can’t take it from there, you can’t take it all.” As a black, gay man in a decidedly “white man’s world” his themes of overcoming discrimination, personal recognition of one’s ambiguities and seeming contradictions, coupled with messages of love and brotherhood were unrelenting. He questioned the fundamental nature of our being without trivializing the complexities and social pressure exerted by the world around us. With him, we experience a journey of understanding and introspection that are fully realized in his The Price of the Ticket than we are. I know we can. But the price is enormous, and people are not yet willing to pay it.” Adversity embraced James at inception. The grandson of a slave, the eldest of nine children, he never knew his father and was eventually adopted by his mother’s husband, a factory worker whose violence and alcoholism eventually outshone his exhortations as a

family he responded, in thought, “I unquestionably wanted to be someone’s little boy.” He studied the Word, sang in the choir and, given his advanced articulate manner, was allowed to preach sermons. He took his cues from the jazz musicians of the time, improvising rifts of verse from the texts he so diligently absorbed. “Those three years in the pulpit – I didn’t realize it then – that is what turned me into a writer, really, dealing with all that anguish and that despair and that beauty.” The ripples of tone and cadence in the Bible still reverberate throughout Baldwin’s writing. painter who would quickly become a life-long friend and tremendous me, that ‘a black man’ could be an artist. In a warmer time, a less blasphemous place he would have been recognized as my teacher and I his pupil. He became, for me, an example of bravery and integrity, humility and passion... an absolute integrity. I saw him shaken many times and I lived to see his broken purpose. I never saw him bow.” His stalwart demeanor provided Baldwin with a moral bulwark against the external blows of society and internal probing of a questioning conscience. “He taught me how to see, and how to trust what I saw.” His writing began to mature, becoming more succinct, more poignant. burgeoning mind of James Baldwin. His father vehemently opposed often considered the “center of intellectual life” in New York City.

poor neighborhood, exacerbated by the Great Depression, where depravity loomed around every corner. The desolation was far more than an environmental condition; it extended to the actions and minds of his peers, role models and adversaries. Even as a child, the oppression weighed heavily on him: it felt like a game that he could not win. Within the family, he was physically and verbally abused by policemen, forcing him to be demonstrably aware of his own insecurities. into his studies. Gravitating towards the works of Tolstoy and others who focused on the human condition, reading became his refuge. “It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or had been alive.” A prodigious reader, he quickly learned that the more he read, the less he knew. Undeterred, he voraciously sought to limit the extents of his own ignorance. Curiously enough, when other children begin to question themselves, adolescence for James began to show signs of salvation. Unenlightened thought received a multi-pronged attack from James. His studies at DeWitt Clinton high school were augmented by his contributions to the school magazine. His articles, essays and poetry found a platform, a proving ground where his thoughts were open to public display. This exercise provided a relatively safe haven where the disenchanted could gravitate towards one another. One of those outcasts was Richard Avedon, with whom he immediately forged a strong friendship and creative alliance. These two supported one as a source of freedom in their scholastic and ultimately professional lives – Nothing Personal Simultaneously, at age fourteen, he joined the Pentecostal church in Harlem seeking safety from the “evil within and the evil without”. When questioned by a preacher about inclusion into the spiritual

perspective, allowing him to ask intimate questions and seek elusive conclusions. From As Much Truth as One Can Bear he states, “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” As adolescence transitioned into adulthood, the

A 1954 Class Picture of the MacDowell Colony Fellows. James is on the top row, second from left

artists and intelligentsia of that era. Notably, he lived with Marlon years. It is believed that Brando provided much needed support for Baldwin in his quest to comprehend his sexuality. That same year, he ventured out to Brooklyn and without notice, knocked on Richard Wright’s door, shook his hand, and formed a bond that launched his literary odyssey. Wright helped him secure the Saxton Fellowship in Go Tell It on the Mountain the top of New York City’s political food chain, the famous mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia. George Washington Bridge, James Baldwin’s expedition up the literary mountain was nearly derailed. His driven focus wavered, despair crept in; “The whole society has decided to make you nothing. able to confront his anguish many years later through the character Rufus, featured in Another Country. Remaining in the States was no longer an option. The rampant discrimination against blacks and

to terms with his writing, his role in society and himself. He became completely immersed, perfecting the language and adopting its

come through something, shed a dying skin and was naked again... realized that his talent was worth cultivating, he felt that life lacked meaning without that pursuit. He took control, responsibility for his actions, “It was beneath me to blame anybody for what happened to me.” The Atlantic provided the necessary physical distance, Paris delivered the necessary mental freedom and time allowed for consolidation of thought. A three-month sojourn to Switzerland in Go Tell It on the Mountain. Its completion was a catharsis for James Baldwin, purging him of the last remaining obstacles. “There were things I couldn’t deal with would Baldwin’s vision be obscured by the restraints that surrounded him. He had found his voice and it was powerful. “That the western world has forgotten that such a thing as the moral choice exists, my

him. “I was very wounded and I was dangerous because you become what you hate.” Just as Baldwin began to drift, Paris became his life through this period where I was very much alone, and wanted to be.” The nature of France, particularly Paris, allowed Baldwin to come

outspoken stance against discrimination in all forms, forward thinking in terms of sexuality, particularly homosexuality, and general candor

on all social issues, created an aura that permeated James Baldwin. In expatriated to Paris as well. Artistically, Delaney helped cultivate his mind and nurture its fertility. Being abroad provided him a sense of detachment that ultimately found a home in his literature. “Once you

penetrating Giovanni’s Room explored taboo themes particularly homosexuality, a topic heretofore never portrayed on this level. He credited the writing of Henry James, who touted the ideas of “the center of consciousness and using a single intelligence to tell a story”, His societal prominence allowed him to meet the “Tout Paris”, the A-list of its era, and bond with many of its icons like Josephine Baker. The intelligentsia of the Parisian left bank took notice of Baldwin and they gravitated towards one another, joining radical minds with sharp rhetoric. His friendship with Jean Genet, who campaigned on behalf of the Black Panther Party, and the activist-philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, would plant the seeds of social activism that would blossom shortly thereafter. His literary voice grew louder with maturity, more forceful with his expanded insight. “I’ve been compelled in some ways by describing my circumstances to learn to live with them. It’s not the same thing as accepting them.”

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The tipping point for James Baldwin came from a singular image of a young girl, an innocent, trapped in the turmoil of a mob that had spawned from the desegregation of a school. The embers of social activism were set ablaze. This was enough for Baldwin to repatriate to the States. He carried his own baggage, shouldering his nonconformist beliefs that every person is a vessel of the divine spark and toured the nation with an ideological position somewhere between the muscle of Malcolm X and the heart of Martin Luther King, Jr. “It’s fascinating from the point of view of styles, and accommodations to human pain, that it took me so long – from

him when he put the interests of others solidly ahead of his own. expanded after the publication of two best sellers, Nobody Knows My Name Another Country the South and seen those boys and girls, men and women, black and white, longing for change.” A Talk for Teachers “Precisely at the point when you begin to develop a conscience multiple fronts: civil rights, racial equity, homosexual rights and an end to the Vietnam War. He secured potent allies in this struggle like Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte and Nina Simone. “Now, it is true that the nature of society is to create, among its citizens, an illusion of safety; but it is also absolutely true that the safety is always necessarily an illusion. Artists are here to disturb the peace.” Visual artists like the painter Philippe Derome credited Baldwin for giving meaning to their work and the courage to portray “the black as a contemporary The brutally realistic The Fire Next Time and its graphic depiction of race relations alienated some of the white critical press due to an unwavering commitment to present his side of the “truth”. However, Time magazine was undeterred, featuring his portrait on the cover and exclaiming, “There is not another writer – white or black – who expresses with such poignancy and abrasiveness the dark realities of the racial ferment in North and South.” His fame translated into political savvy. “Perhaps the turning point in one’s life is realizing that to be treated like a victim is not necessarily to become one.” Robert Kennedy, the U.S. attorney general, thought true solidarity, he brought along a few of his friends including, but not limited to, Kenneth Clark, Harry Belafonte and Lena Horne. His compatriots, artist-activists, were making their voices heard at the highest level. “Only the artist could reveal society and help it renew itself.” The Civil Rights movement did not universally embrace James Baldwin. Most notably, the Black Panthers’ Eldridge Cleaver excoriated him for his sexuality. “It could make one’s head spin, the number of labels that have been attached to me. And it was inevitably painful, and surprising, and indeed, bewildering. I do care what certain people think of me.” He weathered the disdain, the omission from rallies and continued to march forward. He likened his activism to the “latest slave rebellion”. From The Fire Next Time, his message was know we cannot live within.” Critics questioned his message and its implementation. He responded, “Ideally... what a critic can do is indicate where you’ve been excessive or unclear.” He loosed the

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shackles of obstruction and soldiered on. Turbulence raged around James Baldwin yet he maintained poise and besieged the establishment with his intellect. He believed that the black American should claim all history, as written by whites – including Shakespeare, and make it their own. He had long considered Shakespeare his nemesis, “the architect of his oppression” but all that fell away when he released the hate. “I was resenting, of course, the assault on my simplicity.” Baldwin took full control of his native tongue and made it his own. He concluded, “The greatest poet in the English language found his poetry where poetry is found: in the lives of people. He could have done this only through love.” The unrest continued throughout the nation but the violence prevailed. The deeply emotional and passionate Baldwin succumbed to sorrow when he came to terms with the assassinations of his friends, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and especially Martin Luther King, Jr. He could tormented by the plight of other people.” “No one works better out of anguish at all; that’s an incredible literary conceit.” He needed to regroup; he needed to recalibrate. Retribution was never an option for him. “You cannot do that, life is not like that, you only destroy yourself.” Again James Baldwin turned to Europe for refuge. His familiarity with the culture provided consolation and relative isolation was the remedy for his wounded activism. “The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid: the state the small provincial village of Saint Paul de Vence in the south of France. His modest house, situated beneath the ramparts, became a safe haven and James with Nina Simone his recovery took hold. He penned the controversial Open Letter to My Sister, Angela Y. Davis in November of that year. Familiar companions of his past sought out his presence. Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier maintained their positions on the front lines of civil unrest in the States but found the time to be regular visitors. Beauford Delaney reprised his earlier role and took up residence at the house, a second home. In an instance of reciprocity,

Icons of the entertainment industry paid their respects and basked in the company of the man who had inspired them. James Baldwin, who always had a passion for music since his early childhood, welcomed into his home the likes of Nina Simone, whom he introduced to the Civil Rights movement, Josephine Baker, Miles Davis and Ray Charles. That musical passion turned professional when his prodigious skills were set to writing compositions for Ray Charles among others. He became close friends with the French actors Simone Signoret and Yves Montand, wife and husband, who also lived in the region. The French writer Marguerite Yourcenar was so entranced by his charm and message that she later translated his play, The Amen Corner. “If you really want to know something about solitude, become famous... On the other side of that is a great responsibility.” His

writing continued but his physical presence as an activist was largely shelved. Baldwin spent copious hours answering the mail of his supporters from each corner of the globe. In the midst of his social obligations, he maintained a steady level of scholarship. Just Above My Head Evidence of Things Not Seen milieu. For a man who so demonstrably chiseled into the American literary landscape, ironically, it was France who recognized his genius Late in his life, in an interview with Jordan Elgrably, he ruminated on his method of writing and its implications. “It is simply this: a writer has to take all the risks of putting down what he sees. No one can tell him about that. No one can control that reality.” The process of writing became more laborious for him as time went wrote everything longhand and transcribed it later because he felt he could achieve “shorter declarative sentences” with that technique. “You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal.” Simplicity was his mandate, preferring to show rather than describe the acts, actions and environments, internal and external, of his characters and their circumstances. Writing challenged Baldwin nearly as much as he challenged his audience. “The whole

place in history, unearthed moments of prescience and perhaps were prophetic of the world we now inhabit. “When I was a kid the world was white, for all intents and purposes, and now it is struggling in constant transition due to the nature of its democratic behavior. However, this particular transition has had myriad consequences. Initially, the response by those who felt threatened was physically violence as evidenced by the casualties of the Civil Rights movement. Now the attacks and counterattacks are waged primarily in the mind. The media, particularly social media, is instrumental in accelerating monster, they are not about to recognize it. You create a monster and destroy it. It is part of the American way of life.” However, this new weaponry, when improperly wielded, can become dual-edged. By providing every person with a platform to espouse their views and ideas, without a thorough understanding of their personal context within society, can potentially lead to a narcissistic and impotent existence. “The nature of self-indulgence which seems to me to be Baldwin cautions, “One writes out of one thing only – one’s own experience... yet one’s own experience is not necessarily one’s twenty four-hour reality.” In The Cross of Redemption Baldwin meditated on the role of the poet and playwright, William

what you don’t want to know, what you to anyway.” He culled the experiences of his life, endlessly searched for a edge of manifestation. “You never get the book you wanted, you settle for the book you get.” This realization left Baldwin more resolute than ever. When questioned about what troubled him, any knowledge that had been elusive. He advised, “The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.” Contemporaneous artists and writers embraced him, his philosophy and enduring spirit. Maya Angelou, who considered him a “friend and brother”, credited him for setting the stage for her world renowned I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Delaney had done for him, Toni Morrison sincerely believed that James Baldwin showed her the true potential in her writing. In a passionate recollection, she extols, “You knew, didn’t you, how I needed your language and the mind that formed it? How I relied on

audience. “That is why he is called a poet. And his responsibility, which is also his joy and his strength and his life, is to defeat all labels and complicate all battles by insisting on the human riddle, to bear witness, as long as breath is in him, to that mighty, unnameable, his work so well that when the breath has left him, the people – all people! – who search in the rubble for a sign or a witness will be able saga. For those that feel powerless in a sea of immense proportions, he mastered the minor character and lent them a voice. “The minor characters have a certain freedom which the major ones don’t. They can make comments, they can move, yet they haven’t got the same weight, or intensity... They carry the tension in a much more explicit their actions and the accountability of the consequences, he retorted, “Oh no, if you fuck up a minor character you fuck up a major one.” James Baldwin understood his part, performed it intensely and evolved into the icon we acknowledge today. Whether you consider inspiration and let your voice be heard. Uncle Jimmy wouldn’t have it any other way. If you happen to make a pilgrimage to Harlem, feel free to visit the

the accolades that largely eluded Baldwin during his lifetime. A Place. It is a short distance from the National Black Theater on Fifth

memorializing the man that spoke to her with love. James Arthur Baldwin concluded his journey in this realm when de Vence. Some pundits question James Baldwin’s resonance, indeed relevance, in contemporary society. His views, albeit marked by their

a little more, love a little deeper and be unapologetic about being black folks in this country.” She had urged the audience that day to be Sonia Sanchez. She invoked “his resident spirit” and chanted, “You better thank him, you better thank him, you better thank him... that man who came to us with love.”

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Gentleman in paint. Karl Meszlényi It is not often that I am anxious about an interview. I’m not saying that my work is done with routine, but after many years of experience, I am comfortable talking with people, in just about any given situation. Karl Meszlényi’s case is, however, different

by ZOLTAN+ Photographs by JONAS MÁTYÁSSY

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was visiting Budapest and curated “Anonymous”, a young talent show for the Budapest ArtMarket. He was not amongst my artists. In fact, I was not aware of his existence. During the exhibition, a young man painted dark blue, sat next to me. He might have thought it was a provocation, but after having spent my wild time in Paris, New York and San Francisco, very few things can make me jump, unless they are absolutely fresh, untamed and come from the heart. On that day, I could hardly consider that “act”, as an “art-performance” and gave very little consideration to it. Although I knew, that in Hungary, the slightest difference in clothing or behavior, which does not match their conformist ideas is considered disturbing and unacceptable by society. Suddenly, he turned towards me and asked me, if I would look at his portfolio. I replied very politely, that it was not the right time, nor the place, to look at any artist portfolio. The next day, he came back with a different blue face, which was rather amusing, but he still received the same answer. I have to confess, that on the third day I was kind of curious, whether he was coming back or not. But instead of wearing another blue face, he returned, dressed in a lavishly cut suit and a Borsalino hat, like a young Bowie in 1970. Well-played Karl, but he still had to wait two months until I visited his studio. Two months later During wintertime, Karl received me in his under-heated studio. We leaped though some broken objects, bits and pieces, until I was led to the main piece. I stood the whole time, while he pulled out his drawings, paintings and insane objects. To my total surprise I was stunned. “Am I with the incarnation of Pollock-Twombly, wrapped in the dark life of Rothko?” I asked myself. Rarely, I have seen such passion coming from such a young artist. The love for his work was instantaneous. At that time, Karl had no portfolio or any kind of professional presentation, just dirty hands, marked with oil paints, rust, dust and whatever, you do not even want to know. I was thinking, that with the right presentation, he could get very far in life and this young artist has the potential to be rapidly discovered by the art-scene. Gertrude Stein would have loved him. My slight anxiousness of meeting Karl at this time comes from the fact, that a rendezvous with him is always unpredictably deep and painfully truthful. You never quite know what is going to happen. We met again in his studio, which was by now freshly repainted, rearranged and looked like an installation itself. Light blue fresco-clouds and giant plastic, intestines of a monster-like-installation surrounded me. Scary, but amusing.

Indeed, but it was not as dramatic, as it may sound. It was not a furious act of violence, nor an art-installation. I was just experimenting with burnt-textures and things got out of hand, a little. Everything is OK now, repaired. And I found the right texture for my paintings. So, it is never too safe to be next to you, right? Well, if you enter my universe, you have to accept a little danger. Have you been to Istanbul yet? I do not travel a lot. I was in Paris for a few months, stretching my limits on the artistic side. Loved it. Istanbul is on agenda. I am invited by the London based ARTSHO in November, to do a series of “actionpaintings” during the entire show. What do you mean? You see, I love putting myself into a situation, to live profoundly in the moment and express whatever comes out of my brush. For Istanbul, I decided to make large paintings, one for every day hit them with paint, glue them with wood and other materials. I will be put into a glass cage to protect the visitors because paints little difference between my work and myself. It is the same material. To buy a painting is like buying a small piece of me. When I work, I am totally sane, but also totally unconscious, hundred percent into what I am doing. Maybe that is why my limits are often pushed to extremes, as I am not even aware of them.

little difference between yourself and your paintings. Self-impression is vital, not only in my work, but in life as well. I wanted to make clothes, which look like me, like my paintings, so here I am, all over painted. At the same time these clothes are carefully preserved, washable, easy to wear and totally anti-conformists. Recently, I even produced some unique objects for home-decoration, but my main focus will stay in art.

London, so things are starting to move for you. Saatchi is a big name, I am humbled and, of course thrilled, but I can only think of the work single-mindedly. exhibit my paintings. The time is absolutely ripe for me to cross borders.

I love to be challenged, but the work has to be technically inspiring as well. I am like a living laboratory, fuming with ideas, blasting with energy. I do research and then I take the work through different stages, rather

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to do. At the same time, I like to act out the “artist” too. It is fun to play. Visibly, textures are very present in your paintings. I use raw wood, rusty metal, stones, wires, dust and whatever I can lay my hands on.The material is elementary, it conducts the whole procedure. In fact, it is my starting point, where everything gets decided. The actual painting happens much later.

are you from, what is your path? The past is the past. I am more interested in the present, but if you really want to know, I come from a very modest family. I received my diploma at the Fine Art school in Eger, which is a small city in Hungary. Then I moved back to Budapest and opened my studio in Buda. I have been here ever since hermetically working.

local collectors? Sorry, what’s that??? Unfortunately, that does not exist. It might sound strange, although many well-known painters and photographers have come from this country and lived in Paris and New York, that art scene died out a long time ago. We are part of the EU but often I feel, I am on the moon. This is absurd! There are many talented artists here, but the art galleries are already on their survival kits. A handful of local collectors already amassed whatever they could and the rest just try to survive on government subsidies. Once a year, we have the Budapest ArtMarket, which gathers local and regional galleries, but that’s all. It is a very closed and stagnant market.

He wants to be world famous… (says it with great irony)

I waited for so long, worked very hard and now, I am ready to go, jump, dive, share… it’s been a long time, I have been waiting for this.

Of course, but not for easy fame. It would be a challenge to exhibit there and I would give a zillion percent of me to make it work.

Creative Direction ZOLTAN+ T-shirt and jeans hand-painted by Karl Meszlényi

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This talented soprano sings Bach, Handel and Rameau,

a very competitive profession, which is funny because almost everyone I meet out-with the music world says, ‘Oh wow, I’ve never met a singer before’. But there does seem to be more singers than nice work. Also, of course, is the substantial task of getting to the level of recognition as a competent, professional soloist. Even once you are at that level to get recognised, there’s getting people, who decide on who to hire, to take notice and take a chance on someone who isn’t a big name and doesn’t have an enormous amount of experience. I was really lucky in this way, as I got onto the young artists program ‘Jardin

but also loves Nina Simone, Otis Redding, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday

Arts Florissants and William Christie where

Rachel Redmond sings baroque music

womb. Also, when I was little, my dad and I used to sing nursery rhymes together, what he used to do was record them onto cassette tapes from the record player so that I could press play and keep myself occupied listening to them and singing along to them. What kind of music did you listen to growing up? My parents had a huge collection of music in the house; everything from Charlie Pride, the awesome country singer, to Tchaikovsky ballets and Gregorian chants (my Dad’s

with my best friend and his parents. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t surrounded by music really. I think I drove everyone mad with constant singing. I would sing all the themes to adverts and TV shows and when I was seven, the Royal Scottish National primary schools auditioning kids to join the chorus and I was accepted. So, it was with performances. When did you decide to become a baroque music singer?

music for years and baroque music is certainly what I’ve performed most of in the last few. I do clearly remember the exact moment that I fell in love with it. I was in the RSNO (Royal

were picked to sing the children’s choir part in the RSNO’s Easter performance of Bach, St Matthew Passion. We learned it, just the kids together, with the chorus master and a piano and I thought it was interesting, mostly because I hadn’t sung much in German at that age and the umlauts and strange vowels and double s that looks like a big B were all new and alien to me. But when it came to the performance, I got to hear the whole work with the orchestra and soloists, not just the two tiny bits the kid’s choir sing in. Well, it completely blew me away! I fell in love with it all and I think the bit that inspired me the most was the soprano solo with oboe d’amore, ‘ Ich will dir mein Herze Schenken’. That really inspired me. The way that the voice and the oboes interacted and entwined, they danced together, it was like a pas de deux and I just thought it was so beautiful, not just beautiful but wonderfully fun, too. Why do you like singing baroque music so much? There are so many reasons. Much of the time, you’re singing with just a small group of musicians and you can really play around with the dynamics. You can sing so quietly, almost whispering, and the text (which is of

still be heard above the instruments. Also, because the group of players is often quite small, you can play around with the tempi and take your time over certain phrases and if everyone is attentive it can remain clean and doesn’t get untidy. Then you can really put your heart and soul into the music and if everyone is focused, it can create a really fantastically touching moment. The other thing is the ornamentation; in later music, the composers wrote exactly what they wanted, in some cases they were/are really over-the-top up to the performers. It wasn’t written in, due to time constraints on their part and because the performers knew the rules of where and how to ornament. So you get to add your own ornaments, which gives a lovely freedom and you can really put your stamp on it. Why did you to embrace such a career? I think that singing was something that I’ve always loved doing. Also, listening to music, going to concerts and operas but perhaps it was that concert with the St Matthew Passion that really made me fall deeply in love with music. Around this age is when I actually discovered that being a musician could actually be a job. And I thought, “Yeah, that’s

What challenges did you encounter? Well, I think that the problem, which became apparent

coming up, which I’m really looking forward to. I’m a bit of a workaholic so I don’t know

What are your projects for the two coming years? This Autumn, I’ve got some really interesting work coming up! The next big thing in the diary is a concert of the Grands motets of Rameau and Mondonville with Les Arts up with a night-time prom in the Royal Albert Hall. I’ve just started looking at the music and it’s exquisite, so I’m really looking forward to working on that! Then I’m in a baroque music festival in Thiré, set in the This is the third year I’ve been part of this festival and it’s really special; during the daytime, there are lots of mini-concerts going

amount of my time is taken up by learning music which includes learning the notes, translating the text word by word (if it’s in a now-translated text and interpreting (as it’s

Florissants, I hadn’t had any lessons in French

coaching so that you are familiar with the accompaniment and all the other parts going on around you.

and incredibly tiring!

for Les Fêtes Vénitiennes by Campra at the Opera Comique in Paris. That should be

favourite works of music? Yes, that is a hard question. Not only because there are just so many but also because my favourites seem to change weekly. Often, the things that I am learning become favourites and, every so often, they pop into my head and I have a yearning to listen to them. I prefer to go to concerts and operas than to just listen to a CD. In the hall watching live, you get the real atmosphere and electricity which you can only get with live music, not to mention that with watching a live opera you get incredible sets, costumes, acting, dancing, love scenes... what’s not to love? Generally, in my spare time I avoid listening to music that I’m working on because that wouldn’t help me

little masque-type operas, almost like a book of short stories and that’s going to be directed by Robert Carsen so I can’t wait to see what he does with it!

The audience members perhaps don’t know is that the actual performance or show is really the of music? my parents. In fact, both my parents played classical guitar from before I was born not professionally, but as a hobby. So perhaps my

Are you happy with the way your career is going? I am happy. I do feel I’m going in the right direction! I’ve had some nice roles and some really interesting concerts over the last few

and concertos but in the evenings, with a glass of wine, the thing I’m most likely to listen to is Jazz; I love Nina Simone, Otis Redding, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. I never get bored of them!

keep wanting to move forward, to try new things and new roles and hopefully prove myself capable or more! One big recent change is that I moved from Glasgow to Paris this past September and, I feel, this has ignited a new energy in me. I’m really enjoying learning French and, although it’s happening more slowly than I had anticipated, I feel that it’s further deepened my passion for French music and also, since so much of my work is in France, it’s great not to need everything in rehearsals translated

in authentic baroque techniques as well as getting the chance to perform in loads of high

by FRANCIS ROUSSEAU Photograph shot at Dora Gallery, Paris by CHRISTIAN BADGER

creep in which can be bad for your technique or your vocal chords, so it’s good to have someone else listen every now and again and catch you before things go wrong or get out of hand. We’ve been working together for so long now that sometimes I know what she’s going to say before she even says it. But I do need someone who won’t allow me to get lazy or complacent.

Who helped you the most to succeed? Right from the beginning, obviously, my parents. To be an accomplished musician, I’m convinced that you really have to have been immersed in music for a long time, and my parents made that possible. I sang with the junior chorus,

they were the ones paying and taxiing me between all of these concerts, rehearsals, lessons etc. before I went to music school. up from airports, so it’s been really invaluable to have that support. Also Kathleen McKellar Ferguson, my singing teacher from my undergraduate degree, has been a wonderful her now and again for a little ‘MOT”or if I’m worried about performing a tricky bit of music. Singing is an ongoing learning curve, and maybe the curve is less steep than it was at the beginning. Sometimes bad habits can

Although my favourite composer is Bach which is something I perform quite regularly

audience can see lots of snippets of chamber music while enjoying the gorgeous setting. In the evening, there is an opera on the “miroir d’eau” or concerts of sacred music in the church. Next, I’ll be doing Jommelli, Beatus Vir and Handel, Dixit Dominus with Musica Guislieri. I love singing sacred music and it that’s an exciting prospect (We’re rehearsing for that in beautiful Pavia so that’s an added

Did you ever give concerts in the US? I have when I was a student and I visited Chicago with the National Youth Choir of Scotland. We sang in the Grant Park festival and we had some time to explore too. It was very exciting! More recently, I’ve worked in New York with Les Arts Florissants; we’ve done two operas and our Jardin des voix concert at BAM (the Brooklyn A and two concerts in the Alice Tully Hall in the Lincoln Center. I love New York! There’s so much to see and do and it has a great buzz to it, day and night. Venitiennes production, so maybe I can stay a few extra days after that too...

symphonies, Tchaikovsky’s solo piano music

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Second life. Bruno Pieters, designer by STEPHANE GABOUÉ Photograph by BRUNO PIETERS Artwork by ZOLTAN+

Fresh out of Antwerp’s famous Royal Academy School, Bruno Pieters landed on the fashion planet in 2001, with two couture collections that clearly established his architectural and somewhat stern aesthetic. He quickly moved to ready-to-wear, before garnering the kind of the Swiss Textile Award in 2006, the Andam Award from the Pierre Berge and Yves Saint Laurent Foundation in 2007, the Elle Style Award in 2008. Not to mention plum jobs working for Delvaux, and then Hugo Boss. Then in 2010, he shuttered his business and went on a sabbatical in India, an experience that tremendously changed his perspective on life. He came back to fashion with an innovative concept, Honest By, a responsible fashion brand offering relatively affordable clothes made of organic or recycled fabrics. On the brand’s website customers get all the information about the fabrication of the garments. Honest By also regularly greets guest designers, Nicolas Andreas Taralis, or Calla Hayne among others. We caught up with Bruno Pieters to talk about sustainability, his new life, and the future of fashion. What triggered your decision to go for sustainable fashion? I don’t really see sustainable fashion as a different segment of the fashion industry. I think there is just fashion. And some of us produce it in a transparent and sustainable way and others don’t. I decided to produce in a responsible and honest way because I think it’s the normal thing to do. It’s something I wanted as a customer. It wasn’t out there, so I created it. I think it’s logical for a paying customer to receive all information about the purchase they are making. I see it as customer service. In the end, this is not about saving the planet. It’s about saving ourselves. The planet doesn’t need us, but we need the planet. I see Honest by as a tool for change. That is the main reason why I decided to come back to fashion. Of all the collections you did before Honest By, is there one you particularly fondly remember?

because there is no other brand out there doing what we are doing. And we’ve been very fortunate to have kept the customers we had, which is wonderful, and made many new ones. It’s been a wonderful adventure so far.

the runway and the hectic world of Paris Fashion? No. Those days were very interesting, but I see them more as something I had to go through to get to where I am now. When you know better, you do better. I think Maya Angelou was right about that. Today, I make my own rules and I do as I please, when I please. I feel so grateful for everything that is happening to me. Have you also changed your habits in your personal life? I’ve changed everything in my life, my diet, my exercise routine. I’ve made changes in my personal life. Change is the only constant. I love that quote. It’s part of who I am now.

experience been so far? Are there designers you’d particularly I love working with all of them. I’m so honored that they’ve accepted my invitation. They are all so talented, it’s been a pleasure. Collaborations are very popular right now. Is this the future of fashion? The future of fashion is whatever the public wants. The customer has all the power. Everyone else is just working to service them. Fashion today is a tool for money. I think it’s important to not forget that. What are the upcoming events for Honest By? We’re launching 3D-downloads very soon. So you can just print our designs at home. In my opinion this will change the world for the better very soon. If you were named the big boss of a worldwide fashion council,

former Bruno Pieters and Hugo Boss customers? The response is incredible. I think that we’ve been in every newspaper in the world, from the NY Times to the French Le Figaro. I think this is

I wouldn’t accept the job. I would leave that up to someone who is interested in the business. I’m not. I’m interested in positive change. And love. Love is all. All that matters. All that is.

The bountiful issue

THE BOUNTIFUL ISSUE AUTUMN/WINTER 2014

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