As we are on the way to the couple’s apartment, we would have never guessed that we would spend an entire afternoon in an individualized haven that could not be more different from the videos’ Kafkaesque, realized sentiment. Not far from Bergmannstraße, a quite niche in the middle of Kreuzberg, the artists live with their young daughter Faye, who is just taking a nap as we step through the door.

On tip toes, we lurk towards the living room and make ourselves immediately feel at home by sitting casually on the carpet, eating oatmeal cookies and sipping on comforting tea. We converse about Berlin and it being the current center of concentration, cinematic idols and why Kanye West sweetened up their student era, during which Faye joins in and ultimately completes the creative clique. If for infamous bands like The Knife or personal projects – since the very beginning of their studies, the music video directors literally have worked together nothing less than symbiotically. There is no separation between the private or the professional, everything belongs to the everlasting project of life.

This Portrait is part of our ongoing collaboration with ZEIT Online who present a special curation of our pictures on their site. Have a look here!

How long have you guys been in Berlin and where do you originally come from?
Vivien: I grew up nearby Frankfurt and Fabian comes from Würzburg. After our studies, we moved directly to Berlin and have been here now for two years. But it feels like forever, since so much has happened. Faye is already one years old, which felt like five years to me and before that much happened as well – we arrived, met various of people and worked on a lot of projects. At the beginning, we lived in Neukölln but are now completely thrilled with our new flat in Bergmannkiez.

Cool tent you have here. Where is it from?
Vivien: I sewed it myself with some kind of Patchwork-Technic, but it was too much work, which I didn’t realize until after I had started the project. I saw a children’s tent somewhere that cost 300 €, so I thought I could just do it myself. But after many nightshifts, I suppose the tent is truly worth 300 €. 

Did you know a lot of people here already or did you start entirely fresh?
Vivien: Fabian’s brother had worked for a long time at HORT, through which we got to meet a lot of people. This was obviously amazing work-wise, since we got our first job, The Knife video through them.

And how did work develop?
Vivien: A lot happens through the website, but we also receive directly a lot of mails and requests. At the beginning, we obviously introduced ourselves to the production firms here and began to ‘pitch’ through them. In the first year, we only shot a few videos, in the second year it became more and more and now we even have representatives sitting in London.
Fabian: London is very interesting to us, since the music is much more of a satisfaction there. German gigs are usually pure horror to us. Of course there are good ones, too, but overall I don’t appreciate the music. It is often noticeable that artists are pushed by people into a certain direction, without really doing what they’d like. In London, everybody has their own style, which they have had since childhood and find it cool. In Germany, the artists often look normal or even narrow-minded and will be put into specific clothes by their Label, which at the end is obvious and doesn’t reveal this person as particularly fascinating.

When you work with the London representatives, do you often work locally?
Fabian: Actually not. The artists love to come shoot in Berlin.

Really?
Fabian: Yes! Berlin is something unusual for them right now…
Vivien: …our next gig is supposed to have this 90’s vibe and Berlin has lots of exciting locations to offer.

What brought you to Berlin?
Fabian: Primarily, it was because of the people we knew here. But as well the undeniable fact that this was a Metropolis. Every other city in Germany was out of question. For some time, we were in L.A for our final Diploma project – a place that we could also see ourselves at in the near future. At some point we considered a house-swap. L.A. is absolutely amazing to film at. You take the car to the outskirts and will be surrounded by desert, you have mountains covered in snow, as well as the ocean.
Vivien: And everything is just so beautiful – the houses, the light, the vast landscapes…you can shoot at every hour of the day. The city is incredibly photogenic – also because we are familiarized with it from so many movies. As a child I watched so many American films that it almost feels like coming home every time.
Fabian: I also thought it surprisingly easy to film there. Every minute we thought to get busted by the cops, since we used a very big high-speed camera, ‘toaster-ish’ looking, which is impossible to hide quickly.

But nothing happened…
Vivien: No, somehow not.
Fabian: We had firecrackers with us, which was complete nonsense considering the location. We had bought them in China-Town.
Vivien: Yes, it was just like in the Simpsons. You go to China-Town and they show you these small “Sparklers” in their store, then you say “Bigger,” they throw you a quick, bewildered look and then take out socks from the selves and present you the great ones…

Would you still consider yourself music video directors in the future or perhaps move onto pure film?
Vivien: At the moment I would say “No,” it is not the right time yet. But some day perhaps it will be.
Fabian: I think about it from time to time, especially when I see Tom Ford’s films. He is just astonishing, but in his manner also quite uncomplicated and simple. Nothing like David Lynch’s work.
Vivien: Or Godart! It is unbelievable how many ideas there are in his work. We need at least another 20 years of experience.

So how does it work with the music videos – who develops the ideas, how many restrictions do you get from the artist and his/her management?
Fabian: Best case scenario – nothing.
Vivien: Often we receive a briefing with one sentence: “Open Brief – Artist doesn’t need to perform.”
Fabian: Or “likes bubblegum.”
Vivien: And of course the song and then it will be pitched.

How do you develop your concepts and ideas? Have you created a strategy over the past years?
Vivien: We have a galore of notebooks filled with ideas and specific moments, which we utilize. Every day we are bombarded with these seemingly ordinary but surreal moments…The other day I observed a young child who refused to get up from the pavement. Snow still existed and other kids, passing by, covered the stubborn child with a blanket. As well, an invalid man in his wheelchair stopped and tried to convince the child to get up again. It created an obscure ambiance, yet nothing severe occurred. Another time we witnessed some people in Neukölln who were throwing firecrackers against a building. Actually nothing spectacular, but in a sense utterly beautiful and vicious. If one is not blind to it, the everyday life is packed with motifs.

Do you usually focus on the lyrics or on the melody of a song when you work on a video for it?
Vivien: Usually we have different approaches, but the lyrics are often the ones that are less vital. At times it is hilarious to realize that the lyrics perfectly match the scene, which you had envisioned beforehand already.
Fabian: For example, I have a plethora of ‘Moodboard” collections, which I then combine with suiting images.
Vivien:For me, it’s mostly about the actual music. I calmly listen to the song over and over again and actively think about it. It cannot be played along the side – Fabian needs the exact opposite.

And you always find each other within the individual ideas?
Vivien: We complement each other.
Fabian: During the last shootings, I was often alone, since Vivien stayed at home to care for Faye. Sometimes when I got home from work at night, Vivien would be almost outraged with what I had done with work.
Vivien: True. Very often I said: “ These are all stills that they are impossible to cut. But then at the end, magically, everything fits together like a puzzle.

Is there some sort of distribution of roles?
Vivien: A little. For instance, I always cut everything…
Fabian: And you take care of the styling. I don’t really care much about it.
Vivien: It’s almost like ping pong between us.

How is it to work as a couple?
Fabian: I could not think of it any differently! Our life is concerned with Faye and our joint labour.
Vivien: From time to time, when you converse with other people about projects, it becomes clear that between us there exists a certain naturalness and established harmony.

Have you ever worked without each other?
Vivien: No, our teamwork already began during our studies – we met at the very beginning and immediately decided to collaborate.

Has it always been a dream to make music videos or were there other notions?
Vivien: It has always been a dream of mine. In the old days, right after coming home from school, I would watch Mac Gyver or MTV, and when I saw the black and white video of No Doubt, directed by Mark Romanek, I was aware that I would make music videos one day, as well.

What about idols?
Vivien: A massive amount.
Fabian: Numberless. I watch a lot of Documentaries, and Fellini was the last one that blew my mind.
Vivien: Also Antonioni. I had always liked him, but actually thought “Zabriskie Point” to be quite a bore. But last year I finally grasped it. After that, I only consider it a masterpiece. Obviously there are some music video directors who I value, such as Romain Gavres.
Fabian: Apart from them, there is Lynch, Hitchcock, Wes Anderson…

The videos’ mood is usually quite gloomy….
Vivien: Yes, that’s true. But as well it portrays sides of humor and playfulness. In one way we are these likeable and cute parents, but also act out our somber visions within the videos.
Fabian: However, they should not distribute any sort of bad temper.

What is most annoying during the process of your work?
Vivien: The financial and bureaucratic aspect.

And what is most enjoyable?
Vivien: The best part is when you realize that the cuts function properly! Even though the video is still not finished, you have the sensation of it working out. During the final steps, one makes out too many mistakes.
Fabian: It is also great to obtain all the emails and comments at the end.

Is there a specific artist you would like to work with?
Vivien: I would love to work with M.I.A.
Fabian: Kanye West has been a long dream of mine.

Have you ever been in contact with them?
Fabian: No, never. But we felt absolutely ecstatic when Kanye once blogged a video of ours. We walked around grinned-faced for days. It was the video Blue Roses from our student period.

How did you arrive at your technique – the shift-technique in particular?
Fabian: We found these old pictures, they were fusiert completely and had an amazing 3D quality. Since then, we just wanted to work with this kind of material. At the end, it was so much harder than we had expected it to be. Since the focus always changes, you don’t take one picture but 25 of them.
Vivien: You really have to be extra careful and be precise. Nothing can be displaced or shifted, otherwise the nose and the ears wiggle.
Fabian: We improved the technic a bit for the new video. The images not only shake back and forth, but also sway from right to left. However this gets extremely complicated during the post-production.
Vivien: For two weeks, we worked on a series of experiments, which Fabian retained in some charts – it seemed by the hand of a mad professor.

What do you do in order to relax? Do you have any hobbies?
Vivien: Video games! A lot!

And which ones?
Fabian: A lot of Super Nintendo.
Vivien: Oh yes – Street Fighter, Zelda, Arrow Fighter…other than that we find pleasure in magazines, music, exhibitions, flea markets…

Thank you both for a lovely afternoon and a interesting converation! To get an impression of their video works, check out A Nice Idea’s website!

Interview: Cosima Walther
Photography: Philipp Langenheim
Text: Sarah Weinknecht

Sage explained  that at one point in his career, he became frustrated thinking he was painting only for kids, but then on a studio visit with Chris Burden and viewing Metropolis II, an elaborate sculpture utilizing toy cars, he instantly felt better and confident about his direction as an artist. Also present in the studio are large sculptural wall works that have never been shown, and a collection of exquisite masks that were constructed a few years ago. His eyes lit up when talking about contemporary painters, and specifically when he saw Daniel Richter’s works for the first time. Then our conversation quickly flipped to ”Easy Rider”, an American biker magazine, and the magazine clippings that will be turned into surrealistic collaged postcards, and eventually mailed out. Later this year, Sage will be showing new works in China, for which he is currently working on in his studio the day we arrived.  

Tell me where you are from, and where you grew up.
I grew up in the valley here in Los Angeles, but I was born outside of Ashland, in Jackson, Oregon. My family lived across the little Applegate River, near the highway, which was a logging highway.  My parents were full on off-the grid hippies, potbelly stove folks. Growing up, I didn’t realize until I was old enough to get a babysitter, that our family photographs were all naked. And when the babysitters would come over, they’d be giggling at it, and all I could think of is, “doesn’t everybody grow up like this?”

Do you ever think of this as being connected to your use of nude imagery in your work?
I don’t know. I’ve never thought of it that way. I tend to think of myself as more connected to these ideas surrounding love. When you see a 70 pound crazy crackhead pushing another 70 pound crackhead in a wheelchair on “the Nickel” in downtown, and you think, “Dude, they are in love, and that is so rad.”  Those are the things I think are really great, and my parents showed me that.

How did you become involved with Mike D for the show at MOCA?
Mike D had bought a piece of mine at a charity auction for an organization called SurfAid International. They are helping to eradicate a lot of preventable diseases in the poorer parts of Indonesia. They are a super-focused and small charity, and we did an art show at a friend’s house in Malibu. Mike D and his wife bought a piece at that event. Then, I would see Mike around surfing, and I would say “Hello” to him, and he would say “Hey Sage,” and that was about it. So I thought, maybe my hero from childhood doesn’t want to know me, and that’s ok. (laughing).  But then, about a year ago or more, we’d see each other more, and we started talking about surfing, artwork, and his wife, Tamra Davis, who had just finished that movie on Jean-Michel Basquiat, “The Radiant Child” which I thought was a really great bio on him.

Oh, did she direct that documentary?
Yes, it was really amazing, right? You know, growing up, Basquiat was one of the only portraits of an artist I knew, that was alive. I didn’t go to art school, I was technically proficient as an artist, but in terms of the rhetoric, and the other parts of it, I just felt things innately, not intellectually. But with that, it was great to see how she portrayed him, in a way that I felt he was. Basquiat was driven, he didn’t happen to just fall into his career, he was mega ambitious, he worked hard, which are all things I really respected in artists.   As well, the film showed that in the early 80′s in America, to be a black man making artwork was still an issue. I mean it’s one thing to say that we have come so far, but fuck that is just so heavy to even think about. So it was really amazing just to talk with her, and to get her point of view on it.

Where do you surf in Los Angeles?
I mainly surf in Zuma Beach, but really I will surf all over.  I live on the Eastside of Los Angeles, so sometimes I will drive down to Newport Beach, and then sometimes up north to Ventura County, which is about the same distance. But you get such a different read on people depending on where you are.  Ventura County is like no one talks to you,  everybody just stays to themselves, everyone is really polite. But then you go to Newport and Orange County, and the guys have these bleached blonde tips (laughing), it’s a totally different weird scene. It’s pretty cool. I actually really like the driving, and sitting in my car. Usually I’ll take off at 6 am in the morning, I don’t even really realize that I am doing the drive until I get there. I’ll stop in the valley, grab a quick cup of coffee,  show up at the water, and kind of rub my eyes, jump in the water, and just wake up.  And then on the way back, I sit in my car, and answer all my business phone calls, and by the time I get back to the studio I can work. So it works for me.

What time do you get back to your studio?
I’d say probably 11.

Can you talk further about what interests you with your recent paintings in regards to colors?
With the butterfly works, they are a really good vehicle for me to explore color, kind of boundless, without being too regimented to reality, and I can then play with the idea of seeing with these photographically painted backgrounds on some, and some with vacant backgrounds, and I can adhere more to the rules of what something should and shouldn’t look like with that. But with the butterfly works, I can just paint with color. I really like messing with the alchemy of different colors. So we have done a bunch of pieces where some have this background, and others don’t. The new pieces, like the works installed at MOCA, all have these unnatural formations of the swarm into these circles. It has been a lot of fun to take a theme and to just push it.

Is there a theme to these new works?
The initial jumping off point for these new works is the opening numbers of Wagner’s “Ring Cycle.” Within that, the dwarf Albrecht goes to the bottom of the Rhine River and steals this magic gold from the Rhine maidens. It just leads to this insanely long, crazy story dealing with incest, gods, and then he takes this gold and makes a ring of power, and so I took that idea of harvesting something from the natural world , and then manifesting something synthetic, man-made out of it. All my work deals with these notions of “the wild”, and “society.” What we can control and what is chaos. I like playing with these ideas back and forth, and finding different utterances. With the kids that I paint, there is the psychological representation of that before they are convinced that these are the set of emotions of what adults have. This is what you are supposed to wear, this is what you are supposed to do, and then they are still doing this kind of improvisational living, which is what I feel like animals do. And then I have also been painting these bored cops lately. The cops are there to enforce us if we get too wild, but then if they are bored, then maybe it’s about we are not being wild enough? I’ve been obsessed with bored cops, and also the flower sellers at the end of highway ramps, how it is illegal for them to sell flowers there. Those are the new works, I don’t know what that means, but I like pushing those ideas back and forth.
 
Do you think there is humor in your work?
I hope so. I mean, I hope there are levels to it, like aesthetically, and hopefully beyond that. I think we need to laugh at this condition, so I think people should find humor in it. I worry sometimes, that everyone is too serious in the art world, but then I look around at artists that I admire like John Currin and Ed Ruscha, and I think they are always doing funny paintings. These darkly funny works. And that makes me really happy.

Who are other contemporary painters that you admire?
Oh, I love Daniel Richter. I did a show in Hamburg at this collector’s place, and he had this insane collection in the basement of his private museum. There were racks and racks of paintings. There were these Richter’s paintings on sliding racks, and then there would be six Richard Prince‘s works, and you would be like “fuck!”. Richter just struck me. I’d seen pictures of him before, but seeing this stuff in person was really, really powerful. I hadn’t felt this way about works in a while, really since David Hockney, had I really felt any power in person. He also had some amazing works by Peter Doig, which were great to see. For the show, I got a new suit, and I am in Hamburg with my wife, and we show up at the opening, and nobody talked to us the entire night, because I was wearing a suit, and nobody knew I was the artist.  It was really rad and strange, my wife and I were grinning idiots in the corner, thinking what do we do. (laughing).

Thank you Sage for having us! Make sure to have a look at his website and blog to get an impression of his extensive œuvre.

This portrait was planned and executed with the support of Wolfgang Würth and his team. Please also view the FvF feature on the current mb!-Magazine website. Thanks to everyone involved!

Text & Interview: David John
Photography: Zen Sekizawa                                                                                                                                                                        

Together with our great friend Akiko we worked on a concept based on the format of Freunde von Freunden. We reached out to eight creative individuals who allowed us to document their daily life in Berlin. Along with our photographer Ailine we produced all portraits in an intense but at all time fun two-day session where we got to meet some new and old friends. If you have access to Japanese magazines, then please pick up the latest Ginza edition that is hitting stands on May 12.

The issue features the lovely girls Maria and Nadine from the vintage boutique Dix-Sept just around our offices corner, Sven Hausherr of Ceecee, men’s fashion designer Wibke Deertz (A.D.Deertz), Soto’s very own Lia, Ettina of Thone Négron, as well as Hanni who runs œ Magazine plus our very own editors Antonia and Sarah.

Chris leads the way: “Beginning with Aidan Moffat’s Scottish mumble and “Girls of Summer”, the multiple change-ups in the song make you stir crazy, drunk with desire and raging into the night. From here we drive with the top down through Jersey, Baltimore, Snake Mountain and down into Louisiana, just about a mile from Texarkana. Heading West, we slow down a few times and hit some honky-tonks, drink whiskey, get into some trouble and chat it up with ladies of a certain age.

Enjoy the first part of this on-the-road soundtrack and expect more adventure in the second leg of the tour.

1.Time to Pretend – The Divine Comedy
2.Girls Of Summer – Arab Strap
3.New York State Of Mind – Billy Joel
4.Fortunate Son – Creedence Clearwater Revival
5.I Just Can’t Take It Anymore – The Lemonheads
6.Ooh Las Vegas – Gram Parsons
7.Snake Mountain Blues – Townes Van Zandt
8.The Only Road – Richard Hawley
9.Making Believe – Social Distortion
10.I’m On Fire – Electrelane
11.I Walk Alone – Music Go Music
12.Leader Of The Pack – The Shangri-Las
13.Feelin’ Single – Seein’ Double – Emmylou Harris
14.Be My Baby – The Ronettes
15.Reach Out – Music Go Music
16.Sweet Child Of Mine – Luna
17.Oscar Brown – Baxter Dury

Leslie is meeting us at her studio in Paris’ 9th distric with a smile that will frame us during the whole afternoon spent together with a bunch of anecdotes and laughter. Leslie David generously lets you come into her universe and shares her approach, which she describes as ‘instinctive’. Her style is not to fit the mould. She doesn’t claim a concept associated with her creations, which some people may expect after a first exhibition. Soon after her studies she set up as a freelancer, making her own choices and being independent, which agreed with her more.

Over a tea, she talks about her desire to continue working with the same range of projects and make an appearance in product design. On our way between the studio and her house, we keep on chatting about what life is like in Paris, coincidently while we pass by her latest poster on the subway station walls.

This Portrait is part of our ongoing collaboration with ZEIT Online who present a special curation of our pictures on their site. Have a look here!

Can you tell us about your background and how you ended up doing what you are doing today?
I come from Montélimar, located between Lyon and Marseille in France, known as the city of Nougat. I grew up there and went to school there too, up until the end of high school. My parents still live there. After graduating high school, I really wanted to leave the area and the region. I was confident in my desire to study in a creative field. As I wanted to leave my hometown, I enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Lyon. But I quickly realized that it was not made for me; the program was way too conceptual and I needed to get closer to applied arts. So I decided to go to Paris in order to prepare the entrance examinations for the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs. I passed and got a place in Strasbourg, so I moved there for four years. It was at that point that I really chose my specialty; graphic design. During my studies, I also did my first work experience placement in illustrations assignments for magazines. In my third year, I went to Milan for an exchange program. When I came back, an agency I previously sent my portfolio to contacted me. It was Petronio and they offered me a job, not the internship I initially applied for. This offer matched with my desire to leave Strasbourg but also confronted me with the decision to leave school. I had one year left before graduating. I thought about it, hesitated and finally left. I’ve never regretted the choice I made that day. I stayed for two years at Petronio and settled as a freelance designer in 2008.

What was your childhood like? Did growing up with creative parents somehow developed your sensitivity and led you to graphic design?
My parents met in art school in Lyon. At the end of the 1970’s, they started making silk screen prints that they sold on markets. It was a bit hippy! Then my mother got into watercolour painting where she depicted typical sceneries and landscapes from Provence. The original paintings were selling really well, so my parents decided to turn their idea into a poster business. My mother was painting and my father gave up the creative part to become an entrepreneur. At one point, they had 15 employees and were editing other artists’ work. When I was a kid, I saw my mother drawing in her studio at home and my father was often coming home late, but he was his own boss. I know that all this prepared me to be a freelancer and do my own thing. Quite early on during my years at Arts Decoratifs, I knew that the aim was to go into freelance. However, I was not planning the whole thing and happened to first work for two years in an agency. This first work experience was really beneficial for me. And I cannot stop recommending to everyone who wants to be a freelancer to first start with an experience in an agency or a company, as it is highly influential.

Being a freelancer also means managing your own business and client relationship. How do you deal with that? Do you feel there is an evolution since you started in 2008?
For me, I’m still evolving and do not feel like I perfectly manage the whole process yet once projects are involved. Today, I’m lucky enough to have clients coming directly to me. When I started out, I was ready to accept every kind of project; soon after that, interesting jobs came up. The first illustration jobs I did during my studies were really helpful experiences. I often recommend to students to do the same. Through these jobs, I met people, developed my network and even found an agent while I was a student. Some friends in the music world started asking me for record covers, so I got into it. What bothers me is the tendency that people have to keep on asking you to do the same thing.
That is annoying, because my aim is to keep the variety of the projects I get, nothing is more exciting to me than a new project in a new field. It is also great to work with my agent, who regularly offers me a variety of new jobs. It is interesting and comfortable to share this with him, I feel a bit less lonely.

You were talking about record covers. How do you collaborate on this kind of project with the artist?
There is no rule and every time is special. Either there is a real exchange with the Art Director, who is the link between the artist and me, or for smaller labels, I directly work with the artist. For “Let’s Go”, Revolver’s latest cover, the guys just came to me with a photograph they really liked. Another recent cover was for Alain Chamfort, a popular French singer. What actually differs when I work on covers is the way the artist deals with his/her image and to which extent I can use it and play with it. Every time it is special.

You also work for fashion labels. Can you tell us about your collection for Andrea Crews?
The owner of Andrea Crews, Maroussia Rebecq, is a very good friend of mine. Two years ago, we went on a weekend together. At that time I accepted many commercial jobs and was looking for fresh projects. She told me about her idea for a scarf collection and then asked me to create patterns. This is how it started. It was her first collection and since then, several artists created collections for the brand. I also designed the packaging with a stamp system. I had a vision placed between collage and drawing, and wanted to make scarves in different colours. My approach is actually pretty instinctive. I have a hard time drawing sketches and then reproducing the same on the computer. Ideas came to me when I was drawing or trying new things.

How do you see yourself evolving? What kind of projects would you consider moving on to? Would creating your own projects with a global approach appeal to you?
I’m not really looking ahead for now. I’m rolling with the jobs I have; however, I give greater attention to selecting jobs, based on what I really want to do. I’d like to keep and even develop the variety of my projects. Also I’d like to do more textile patterns, which I’m really into. I’d love to continue working with fashion labels on smaller or independent projects, like the latest look book for Maison Michel. Last year, I almost started a printed scarves brand with an associate, but it didn’t work out in the end. What is really exciting is to think global, design the identity of the brand, the product, the packaging, the website… So, yeah, starting something of my own would tickle my fancy, or handling the art direction of a nice brand could also do it! I’m also attracted to and curious about the design world. It could be working with designers who would need some graphics for their objects or even designing objects! I already had a great first experience when I designed hooks for Domestic. It is a world that I find interesting but that I don’t know that well. Besides all the aforementioned, I dedicate time to pursue my personal projects and draw.

These drawings were shown at La Surprise gallery last year; your first show. How did you imagine it and what did you want to show? Is there a line drawn between you as a graphic designer and the status of an artist?
This was the first time that the public would see my work. It was a bit weird, because I’m not claiming myself as an artist; I draw, I design images but I do not try to put a concept on my creations. My whole creative process is instinctive, and it is sometimes hard to analyze where your own inspiration comes from. Also working with a deadline for a show is really motivating. I really focussed on the exhibition because I wanted to produce new and special drawings. It was a given occasion to try new things and add colours to the mix. So yes, it was pretty cool and it would be great to experience it again.

Besides graphic design and illustration, do you happen to have other talents or passions?
Yes, I love cooking! I do everything. There are dishes that often come back on the menu and since the new studio is closer to Rue Saint Anne (a street filled with Japanese groceries and restaurant in the 1st district), I walk around and buy some Japanese products that I cook in my style. It actually works by cycles; I can prepare the same dish five times in a row, because I want to improve the recipe and get all my friends to taste it. Oh and yeah I’ve got this new thing, making terrariums. I just did my first, but I’m not sure I should have put the cactus with these fat plants. Well, we’ll see how they get along.

As you are a food enthusiast, can you share some addresses that you particularly like in Paris?
There is this Japanese spot, called kiku, on Richer Street; really yummy. On Passage Des Panoramas, there is a small wine bar, Coinstot Vino, that’s only been open for six months. I work in the neighbourhood so I still have a lot to discover. I also love Gazetta on Cotte Street and le Chateaubriand, on Parmentier Avenue, in the 11th district. As you can see, we really love food and I could come up with a really long list…

Where do you get your inspiration from these days?
I really like illustrated old books, patterns and Art deco jewelry. An entire section of my library is dedicated to that. What is cool now is that I’m actually making patterns for a jewelry designer, Anna Rivka. They will be reproduced with pearls on bracelets. When I’m in the countryside, I often dig out some fabulous findings in second-hand stores. I find old books, which are not necessarily about graphic design but with images that inspire me and that I could use later for collages. Last time, I found an incredible illustration book. And now I just ordered a bunch of art books on the Internet. I cannot wait to have them delivered.

Could you describe the objects that surround your work space?
So as I just mentioned, there are these vintage books that I keep as inspiration. These are precious findings. You can find some of my previous projects, like the look book for Maison Michel, a hat manufacturer, with pictures by Karl Lagerfeld. The idea was to use the codes of school yearbooks and mix it up with the traditional codes of the company. Here are scarves from my collaboration with Andrea Crews. On this shelf, it is more about little objects that I like. My new collection, two Wooden Dolls designed by Alexander Girard, sold by Vitra. I’d love to have the one with the feather on top of her head! Over here, there are some pieces from my collection of ceramic hands, both here and in my living room at home. Since I started this collection, friends of mine kindly bring me some, so my collection keeps on growing.

We are now at your place. How long have you been living here?
We‘ve been living here for two years. Previously, I lived alone. The place evolved with us two moving in together. We kept the best furniture and decoration pieces that each of us had. Plus, we often go to antique/flea markets to find small accessories and even some furniture pieces. And Antoine especially bought Mimosa flowers this morning!
While the chat goes on, Antoine brings some tea and, Leslie puts another record on the turntable. It is a nice moment, when you notice it’s raining outside.

Thank you Leslie for the afternoon we spent together and thanks to you two for having us!

Interview & Text: Léa Munsch
Photography: Sarah Skinner

His recent exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem was all about the collection of studio detritus and the people that pass through Paul’s life. Paul’s work is about his life and I have been pleased and honoured to be such an active participant in it. We are on this journey together and being an artist in New York has been ever the more rewarding because of Paul’s presence.

Throughout the years, you have focussed on taking traditional portraits of friends, lovers, relatives or even strangers. However, every so often you physically make an appearance, and increasingly, you are showing up more and more; either as yourself or an avatar. What marks the shift between self-portrait and portrait of others? What does the presence of the artist signify?
When I first began making images of people – photographs that I still don’t think of as proper portraits – I didn’t feel a need to make self-portraits and I hadn’t thought about it. These were images made with artist models, strangers, etc. that I was making in the year after I finished my undergrad. There is a big difference between making images of people and making a portrait. A portrait has a two-way connection and requires an investment by the artist, by myself. When I began the project in the Winter of 2004/2005 that eventually became Beloved Object & Amorous Subject (Revisited), it soon became clear to me that I had to make myself present in the work as well.

Usually you take photographs for interviews with other people. What is it like to have your portrait taken by another photographer?
It’s always interesting to see how other people take an image of me. There’s a great amount of control that balances out some of the vulnerability in self-portraiture. It’s nice to be directed by someone else. Fette took these portraits at my house right after I had moved out of a studio space and I kept thinking that everything was out of order, and was actually more concerned about how my house looked!

Previously your work was more about a traditional portrait of a person, but the most recent studio work (from the Studio Museum in Harlem) was all about the casual visitation of people and the detritus of the studio. Now we see portraits of plants, papers, etc. What lead to this change in process, representation and presentation of the work?
What happened was the consolidation of space and time in the work. I’ve always been interested in the difference between the taking of the image, the time between processing and printing, the space of the darkroom and then the return to the work when preparing for presentation – how all of these add to the content and context of the original image. I’ve often gone back and re-edited and re-contextualised images that were taken months, years before, based on the current relationship I have to the person.

I have had various studio situations in the past, but the spaces were storage, office-type spaces where I would occasionally lay works out for editing and review before filing them away again. I began taking snapshots of these desktop arrangements and prints pinned to the wall of the studio in context, and labelled the dates on them to return to later. These photographs turned into the images of prints in the studio. The clean white-wall portraits in my home gave way to their domestic surroundings – the tabletops, beds, plants, chairs – and in the Studio Museum residency, it was the accumulation of the working environment that became the setting, grounding the images.

Do you feel that your work has become less ‘gay’ and more ‘queer’ and what does that even mean to you?
I’ve never really thought of my work as gay or queer in a way that starts from a political identity; as in through this work, I am framing or commenting on that idea. But gayness, queerness as the social world in which I live, opens up many ways of looking at relationships; especially within a web of overlapping connections between people. I think about how the making of artwork affects these and how the resulting images can exist as a record of this social web.

You talk about social webs, which makes me think that your subjects are not randomly selected people, but are somehow all connected, socially or otherwise. Is this true? If so, how important are personal relationships to your work?
Oh of course, yes! They aren’t strangers or randomly selected, nor selected for any other reason than my interest in them or occasionally their interest in participating in these projects. Personal connections and relationships are central to my sustained interest in making the work that I do. There was a natural process over the first few years where strangers were edited out and what remained was stronger – connected to something that existed before and after the moment of the portrait itself.

Can you talk about work you’ve done that doesn’t feature people at all such as the bedscapes that you call ‘landscapes’ or the Alexandria Project, which consists of photos of book pages?
The work that doesn’t feature images of people (or obscured, illegible images of people) is still about my relationships to those people; perhaps even more so as they are about the absent spaces that surround bodies, physically and in time. It is also about the absence of the portrait or the inability to make a portrait (to temporarily ‘fix’ someone if you think of the term ‘fixing’ with the photographic image) and the remaining ghost. The bedscapes were made before or after portraits or coming back to a space where they had been made and looking to find that connection again. Alexandria, based on the Alexandria Quartet novels by Lawrence Durrell, is about the inability to make a portrait and challenging the authoritative voice of any artist’s work made to fix a person (the portrait in visual art or literature). Most of my project themes come from literary sources.

You have published a lot of ‘zines and books and are presently working on a book from your Studio Museum residency. How important to you is the book format?
The book format is important for contextualising and sharing work that is accessible and collectible beyond what the limited edition print allows. It’s about broadening the conversation as well.

What keeps you going when the art world gets you down?
A good amount of friendships that exist outside of the art world! And my mom’s constant faith in my work. I’ve never been one to sit and complain that things aren’t “happening” and ‘zines were important when I first began making work as a way to be generate opportunities rather than sit on the sidelines.

And do you have any advice for young artists who may be just starting out?
Commercial success and success in making good work are two separate things. Find a good day job that supports you financially and creatively and gives you skills that you can use to your benefit. Keep all of your old statements, applications, etc. You’ll learn A LOT by looking back at your mistakes. Never complain and always share the positive!

Thank you Paul for having us! If you’d like to check out his work, have a look at his website.

Photography: Fette Sans
Interview: Timothy Hull

Although busily working on an important solo exhibition planned for coming autumn and preparing a road tour for a chair from a former World War II hideout, the Amsterdam based artist still finds the time for an extensive Friday afternoon conversation, explaining to us how the history of the city is inching its way into her work.

This Portrait is part of our ongoing collaboration with ZEIT Online who present a special curation of our pictures on their site. Have a look here!

Fashion magazines proved to be useful material in your work. Selectively cutting fashion photos, driving nails through entire magazines. How should I interpret these works?
The cuttings started while I was living in New York City for a year. I moved there in 2001, after finishing the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam for my then-boyfriend. New York is overwhelming. The pace. Its assertive inhabitants. And its enormous billboards. These impressive advertisements became some sort of anchor points for me. I used them for orientation, and they made me feel familiar with the city. At the same time the billboards embodied the aspects of NY that I dislike: the never ending rush, and especially the focus on commerciality. I started dissecting fashion photos as a way of reflection. In this way the photos became personal, and a part of myself.

There is also a hint of mutilation. Can your work be read as a rejection of the commercial industry or rejection of the ideal of beauty?
Partly, maybe. But it is also an expression of the attraction it has on me. I can find the fashion industry and the ideal of beauty disturbing, but sometimes cannot resist the urge to buy a fashion magazine. Hate love. I once banned magazines, but found myself buying one a little later. It is like an addiction and like any addiction it is difficult to quit. The balance between fascination and frustration provides inspiration.

Was New York important in itself?
My time in New York was of great importance to me. I moved there just after finishing art academy, and left everything familiar behind. It was really a coming-of-age story. New York was a great school. I experienced the American mentality, and found useful elements in it. The way Americans present themselves is one example. People always come up with an interesting, daring, and catching story, whereas artists in Europe or the Netherlands tend to be more retained.

Is your success also related to your time in New York?
After I moved back the works I developed in New York received positive reviews. Galerie Diana Stigter showed interest in my work and hosted an exhibition. The cuttings were very successful indeed. But after a while I started to find them appalling, making them made me unhappy. In a way the works started consuming me. At some point I could not make cuttings any longer and decided I had to move on.

Was there a specific reason or event that made you stop creating cuttings?
I don’t think so. I was just done with it. Criticizing the fashion industry is also fairly easy. I was ready for more daring projects. For the final cutting I used a photo of myself, and that was it.

What are the questions that were occupying you the most as an art student? Did they change a lot until today?
Towards the end of my studying years at the art academy in Rotterdam, I started to become very aware of this moment you have to present yourself for the first time to the public. After learning so much about art, art history and all the artists- my predecessors and certainly hero’s- it is suddenly your turn. I became very conscious of that position and was asking myself the question: Where do I stand after all this. Taking this question literally, I created a stand for myself. I made a pressing of my legs from crotch to foot in marzipan coated with icing. The soft substance echoed the negative curves of my body. The sculpture was smoothly molded and resulted in conical pillar of sugar. Standing astride, luxuriating in the sugary substance of honey-like transparency that slides down its thighs.

The sculpture was entitled How sweet is the space between my legs. This was my first sculpture. I realized I liked this position. It was very close to the skin and revealed a lot, but at the same time I was absent. Visible and invisible together. That sculpture proved to be more fragile than I expected it to be. I was promised that it would probably last for several years by the baker who helped me prepare this project. But as soon as they were finished the marzipan surface started to split and fall apart. Apparently, decay is a process to which my sculpture was prone. In a state of constant deterioration, through sagging and cracking. The discovery of these deformities provided me with a whole new perspective: the un-containable beauty. Perhaps it’s the certainty of decay that makes beauty so appealing. My attempt to position myself permanently proved to be an illusion. The sculpture of the space between my legs is now nothing but a memory. I still have the tendency to create a visible and or invisible space within a magazine page or in a interior, a place where I can insert my questions.

Can you name something challenging you have been working on since?
The installation I did at Castrum Peregrini was definitely interesting. Castrum was a safe house for group of men during World War II. The apartment they shared has hardly changed since. The men developed a very special bond during the war years, and wrote poems, made paintings. Some of them stayed after the war. Today the Castrum’s building functions as a cultural centre for debate, and is nowadays run by three men. What’s more, the patroness, who turns hundred this year, still occupies the top floor and has her apartment at the attic. The intimate bond and almost mythical aura is still present today. After one of the original inhabitants passed away, it was decided that his apartment needed a clean up. But at the same time everyone would have loved to keep it untouched. I thought that this could be the best test of aura, what remains when the interior is removed. And in that room I created an installation. I covered everything in transparent plastic and tape, after which the furniture was removed piece by piece. In the end only the plastic cover shaped by the objects and interior pieces remained, like a death mask of the room.

Why was this project challenging?
Castrum has such an impressive and private history. It is a place that commands respect. You can’t go in there and tear something apart. There a numerous layers, and stories of many people. It has many dimensions, which makes Castrum much more complex than the fashion industry.

The work you made at Castrum Peregrini was highly contextual. Has context gained importance in your recent work?
The history of a place has gained importance. The impact of past events on the way we perceive a place in the present is fascinating. Through my work I try to explore this effect. Interior plays an important role. I am currently considering a project at the Hilles House in England. I have got in to contact with Detmar Blow, the grandson of the architect and original owner of the place. This beautiful house also has a long history. And I slowly start to unravel more and more of the intriguing family history. It is really like an opera. But also has terrible stories to tell: two family members, among who Detmar’s wife Isabella Blow, committed suicide here.

Do physical surroundings also influence you personally?
Definitely. Rotterdam, where I was born and raised, shaped me for a great deal. About six years ago, after New York and some time in Berlin, I moved to Amsterdam. Compared to Rotterdam, which was nearly erased in the 1940 bombings, the city has much more ‘visible’ history. Amsterdam is slowly finding its way into my life and my work.

Do you think it is particulary hard to live and work as an artist today compared to bygone decades?
I do not think it is harder today. I think it has been the same and will be. It will always be difficult and wonderful. Maybe women today, like myself, have even more choices and a certain freedom to become an autonomous artist.

Did you have an alternative option to becoming an artist?
No. Maybe art started for me when I was walking to elementary school and back home every day. During these walks I would find leaves, stones and all kinds of objects that not only seemed beautiful to me but almost personalities on their own. Also things you can not grasp, like one day when I saw the sun shining on a quite insignificant brick wall I wanted to imprint this image into my memory to not let it be lost. And it worked, I still remember it, although that image of the sun on that brick wall is less pretty to me now. I think it was more about the insight, but then I really thought it was that image. Later I understood that these sensitivities can be discovered more and kept in the arts.

What do you like most about Amsterdam? What are your favorite spots in the city?
Amsterdam is a small city but has a lot to offer. I live near the Zoo Hortus Botanicus and Artis, and with my membership card I can go in and out daily. The Portuguese synagoge is a beautiful place to visit, although I bike more past it. By bike I ride to my studio and cross the Magere Brug, a thin bridge over the Amstel, almost daily. This is always a wonderful spot. My favorite bar is Cafe Krom because of it’s atmosphere and good service. They have a jukebox which still runs on the 10 cents from before the euro was introduced, so you just ask for the money at the bar and then you can select the music. At the horrible Rembrandt square, Cafe Schiller is also quite an amazing oasis. Then Trouw at the Wibautstraat has a great restaurant and reminds me a bit of Rotterdam. In the winter I love to bike along the canals and smell the fire places and look inside the houses. From my window I can see the Mill ‘De Gooyer’ and it houses the brewery ‘t IJ. The beer is very tasty and a lovely place to visit in the summer.

What place would really like to visit in the nearer future?
I actually want to see the first meter that was created that must be somewhere in Paris. When my daughter is one meter and she almost is, we will visit.

Thank you Amie!
Find more of her work on her website

Photography: Jordi Huisman
Text: Thijs van Velzen

The whole conversation between Jan Schmidt-Garre and writer Joachim Bessing will be available in English soon. In the meantime, enjoy the interview in German here.

Marcys connection with the waters is of a sixth sense. The well-toned gentleman from New Zealand first came to the ‘island of gods‘ in 1980, in search of the perfect surf conditions and shortly after decided to stay for good. When we drove up to Legian, a busy part in southern Bali close to the notorious Kuta Beach, we were pleasantly surprised to be welcomed in a calm oasis, just off Jalai Pantai Legian where he lives with his wife Melinda and countless surfboards. After two decades on the island, he knows pretty much every dirt road and every surf break that is worth checking out.

The first time we went surfing together four years ago, Marcy made us paddle out to what seemed to be a flat ocean near Canggu. However after a couple of minutes, out of nowhere a big set of waves appeared and rewarded us with beautifully dynamic session. This profound knowledge of nature made a long-lasting impression on us; with a visit to Marcy whenever we are in Bali.

While we were sitting on the patio talking about waves, the recent development on the island and how Google Earth changed the search for the perfect breaks, the afternoon passed by quickly and we were adamant to be in the water in time for a well deserved sunset surf.

Where do you come from?
I am originally from Auckland, New Zealand and I first came up to Bali in 1980. It was very very different back then. Legian, the area where we are right now, was a sand dune with coconut trees and no buildings. There was only one losmen [simple homestays] in the whole area which was run by three brothers. Kuta was a little village with a road and nothing…

When did you decide to permanently live here?
I came back several times but decided to stay in 1995.

How did you meet your wife?
I met Melinda through another friend, Chelsea, who runs this women‘s surfretreat Surf Goddess and she was a guest there. We hit it off and when she came back for her next holiday, she stayed with me. She was quite the high-powered career woman in Melbourne, working in the fashion industry and had a totally different lifestyle. But she came to see me a couple of times and after a while didn‘t leave. Today Melinda gets up everyday at 4.30 a.m. to go to Uluwatu or Serrangan, wherever the wayes are. She surfs for two hours before going to work.

When did you first started to surf?
I was 17 – quite old for a beginner. I surfed some breaks in New Zealand. One coast there is big and onshore, the other is offshore and mostly flat. Around Auckland there are not many surfbreaks that hold the swell and are sheltered from the wind. There is one place named Piha, but it‘s very crowded with all the surfers from Auckland.

And then you came to Bali?
In 1980 I first came to Bali and had an accident at Sanur reef. It took the top of my knee off. So I left injured and didn‘t come back until the early 90‘s.

Do you remember your first impression of Legian?
It was beautiful! Of course, there were these open drains and a little bit of smell, but it was beautiful! My place here is a little bit run down and old, but I like it. It reminds me of how the area looked like back in the day.

It‘s nice here. I like it.
Yeah, it‘s simple and nice. And we have this beautiful tree in front of the house which Melinda loves.

What was the biggest change you noticed?
Everything has its advantages and disadvantages. You can buy more stuff at the shops, like the organic bakery goods at Bali Buddha, and obviously I have more people taking surflessons, but the traffic is a real disadvantage. On the other hand, people start to really take care of the environment, which is pretty new.

When did you start your own surfschool?
It just sort of came about. This big yellow 10 ft board was the foundation of my business. A few people wanted lessons so I started to teach. I worked a little bit for Rip Curl; that‘s where I got a foundation of teaching methodology from. But after a while, I found my own methods, which are pretty different from the surfschools. Most of them offer giant classes. I do 1:1 lessons because you really learn faster that way. I also like to spend most of the lessons in the water and not sitting on the beach talking about theoretics. After a while through word-of-mouth, more and more people came to me and now I have a good running business.

How does a lesson with you look like?
I welcome you in my house. We talk a little bit and get to know each other. Sometimes I really feel like a psychiatrist – you have to talk to the people and figure out what they need from you. For example, you have these Austrian snowboarders, even if they never surfed they are usually good; especially if they are decent swimmers. Then you might have someone from New York who might be a little bit insecure. After a while, I got a pretty good feel for people. The basic thing for me is that I need to figure out a way to get them standing up on the board where they are happy. Thats my goal for the beginning.
The most important thing I teach on a first lesson is: it‘s all about where you look! People tend to look at the nose of their surfboard, but that keeps them from having a good flow standing up. I always try to make them look up. The other important thing is where your hands go when you jump up, the shoulder must be in front of the hand. It keeps the nose of the board going down and tips you onto the wave. All the weight on the frontfoot first, keep going. It feels wrong in the beginning. People fear that the tip of the nose will go in the water, but this is how it works.

What is the most important thing you want your student to take away from a first lesson with you?
It‘s not so much about technique on the first day but confidence and enjoyment. I want to give the students a great experience. The technique comes later.

How many lessons do people normally take before they go out on their own?
It really depends. I had people that snowboard and swim, who catch their own waves after two lessons. Other people I taught weekly for a year, and they are still struggling. It really depends on a person‘s psyche.

Did you ever think about relocating in Bali to a more idyllic place?
This is the best beach to teach on, because it‘s safe. I would never take a new student to the coral reef. It‘s simply too dangerous. There is not a day in the year where you can‘t teach here; this is why I love Legian.

What‘s your opinion on the whole surf trend? Do you recognise it here?
Yes! Definitely. I surfed Brawa, Canggu and Uluwatu for years and years around 1980. You can‘t imagine how different it was- no traffic, no crowds. With the cheap flight tickets there are more and more people coming every year. But I still have some secret spots that nobody knows about. When I first came here, I went down every single road on my motorbike to find breaks. I still got friends who do it, but they go to Java to do that nowadays. But there are no G-Lands to be found anymore.

But there are many breaks who are fickle. That‘s the thing – you need to know the right conditions for each break. That‘s part of the game – you have to know where to go on the day. Since Google Earth was launched, the search is pretty much over. Every inch of the world is scanned. The secret today is that you have to find a wave that doesn‘t work on offshore trades, and getting the day when the wind is right. These waves are left to be discovered. When my friends from New Zealand got their first boat, they went to the Mentawais on their own. There is simply nothing better than arriving on a boat to an undiscovered surfspot- just you and your two friends and riding it the whole day…

What is the best and worst thing about living here?
One of the best things is that it‘s warm. And that I can walk down the street and just surf. These days, it‘s not so much about the very best waves all the time for me, but just to be able to surf a nice session everyday. I used to surf the Bukit all the time, but today I am happy with less. The worst thing is traffic and pollution. But all in all I am pretty happy to be able to live here!

Thank you, Marcy for this nice afternoon! If you like to get to know more about his surf lessons, check out his website.

Photography: Fabian Frost
Interview: Moritz Reischel
Text: Sarah Weinknecht

It is noon on Saturday in the sunny Laurel Canyon. While having Hollywood at its footsteps, the small tuck into the canyon showers you with green light from the trees and the windy path although well traveled, adds just a nice enough quiet into each split off streets. Laurel Canyon is mostly known for the ’60s folk and rock musicians’ making their habitat here, with likes of Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, Jim Morrison, and Joni Mitchell. Half a century fast forward, and it’s still a sought out area in Los Angeles for its abundance of nature. Ai and Cedric found a home in this canyon in late 2010.

This Portrait is part of our ongoing collaboration with ZEIT Online who present a special curation of our pictures on their site. Have a look here!

Ai: Let’s start with Champagne, some radishes and bread outside. I cook more, but Cedric has his own specialty things that he does- today he made a bread with beets, it‘s pink on the outside, and yellow on the inside. We also like to make our own butter too.
Cedric: We were just on the phone with my grandmother, who turned 86 today, and I told her about making our own butter. She said she has always made her butter, and practically never bought one in her life! So let’s take a radish, put some salt on and bite, then eat a slice of bread with butter. Then a sip of Champagne – it’s nice, no? This is a typical French aperitif – we thought it’d be fun to start the afternoon this way.

Please share your background with us- where are you from?
Ai: I was born in Tokyo, raised in the US, on the east coast. After majoring in neuroscience at university, I moved back to Tokyo to work in a robotics lab as an engineer. I worked there for several years, but eventually realized that it wasn’t my calling. I was working with a team that was developing a 4 legged robot. It was a fascinating time, but the work of duplicating human emotion, animal movements and selling it as a robot dog was far from what had initially drew me to the field.

I also wanted to do something more hands on. It was a time when people wanted to have websites and graphics for their sites, so that’s kind of how I got into drawing and sketching professionally. I have been drawing since a young age so it was actually a natural progression out of engineering and into something closer to what i really wanted to do. But with the website work, I was still sitting in front of the computer long hours, so my mother, who was a cooking teacher, suggested “why don’t you make a clothes? Do something with your hands. You are good with your hands.” She was a serious quilter and she really encouraged me. I also have an aunt who is a known costume designer in Japan, so she was an inspiration too. While I was in Japan, I studied pattern cutting, textile technology. Then, I moved to France in 2003 to really work on style. French culture had always been something important to me, even as a child. I think it started by watching french movies on TV after school.

Cedric: I grew up in the Pyrenees mountains, in fact this house which takes a windy road up from the foothills were somewhat similar approach to the house I grew up in. I guess I was seeking out that element in our new home too. I had a great youth there, growing up in the mountains. Coincidently, I also majored in neuroscience. My field was more in animal behavior though, and I went to college in the Pyrenees. I continued my studies in Toulouse, and then moved to Paris to further devour into the field. Growing up in the mountain was great, but I didn’t know much about what was happening in big cities like Paris. There, I was only surrounded by people who had nothing to do with science for the first time in my life. That was beginning of turning my perspectives. I kept on doing neuro sciences in Paris, and we had this great teacher that told us one day : this field is so narrow that you have to invent your own occupation. So be smart, and know what you know, and build something around you. And I guess I kept that in my mind.

When I found myself amongst all these other people doing photography, filmmaking, graphic designing, I thought- wow, so many other things out there. And that’s how I switched to scientific journalism. I was writing for National Geographic, traveling with scientists to the most remote parts of the world. That was great. I’m there when they have the most exciting moment of their job. By doing these reports, I was always with a photographer. My father used to do a lot of photography, so I was simply really interested, and I started to take more and more pictures through these jobs. So one day, I thought OK, now it’s time to face it, do I really want to do photography, and my answer was yes.

And Cedric, somewhere around there, you were also modeling…
Cedric: Yes, that was actually one of the key events that allowed me to switch and commit to photography from scientific journalism. Because as a journalist, I wasn’t making enough money to really get seriously started in photography, between buying professional gears, films, processing… It was really funny timing because I got this phone call from a model agency the day I moved out of Paris. That was a time when i wanted to get closer to the ocean, a big thing in my life. The modeling agency saw a picture of me via my friend, and they were asking me to come in to audition. I had to tell them – listen, I just arrived here. I’m not interested, thank you. But they were really cool. No rush, If you come to Paris, come see us. Actually, the model jobs allowed me to be able to live where I wanted. I had to go back to Paris once in  a while, but it worked out.

How did you meet each other?
Cedric: We had a first encounter at the park, picnicking with our mutual friends around 2006, I guess? My friend actually said you should talk to this Japanese girl, who is fluent in French and English, who studied science as you, so you’ll have a thing or two to say to each other. We met but were not really interested at each other then. (laughs). When my very best friend had a new year party at his house, Ai came and we connected this time. We still don’t know exactly why that happened that night, but i remember so well how ridiculously light i was feeling that night, i was flying.

What prompted you the move to Los Angeles?
Ai: I moved here for a design job for a fashion label based in Los Angeles. And Cedric wanted to try California too, discover the west coast together. Before that, we were in Paris and also down south in the Basque country. Cedric surfs and loves the ocean, so when we were dating, we were hanging out there a lot. We were freelancing and commuting between Paris and the Basque country side. 4 days in Paris, 7 days in the south…We’d always take night trains, you leave late at night, and arrive really early in the morning and you’d go straight to your meeting or to a surf session. The train had little beds called couchette, and during the week often there are no one there. You can pull up the top bunk so it’s just 2 little beds and we have the room to ourselves.
Cedric: It was a great lifestyle.

Ai, where does your love of cooking come from?
Ai: My mother was a cooking teacher. We always had these beautiful leftovers from her classes, so I’ve wanted to have good food on the table now that I have my own family. During my school years, she’d often bake cakes and feed everyone. She’ll show up with 5 pecan pies! Her cooking was a mixture of Japanese and American style, she really believed in a balance diet and prepared it for us daily. She is a pretty impressive lady. She just passed the test to become a nutritionist in Japan. She’s always working towards something, trying to learn something new. I really respect that.

What did you make today?
Ai: I made Japanese Tsukune (chicken minced balls) that has carrot, scallions and ginger topped with japanese black pepper Kuro Shichimi. This was one of my favorite things that my mother used to make. That’s black rice with olive oil and almonds, frisee salad with cedric’s mother’s dressing plus a hint of soy sauce, and this is a Japanese mushroom (maitake, enoki, shimeji) marinade. There’s also grilled purple cauliflower with japanese sea salt, and here are some grilled vegetables (Japanese sweet potatoes, zucchini etc.). Sit down! Come and eat!

Where do you get your vegetables and fruits from?
Cedric: That was a tough one. We used to live next to an organic market in both Paris and the Basque country, so coming here, we missed that a lot. In Paris, we used to buy from this guy that only sold tomatoes. His stand was so small, but always had crazy tomatoes. They were all looking weird, not attractive at all, but he had four different varieties, and they all tasted amazing. He was probably making no money out from it, but it was his passion. When we came here, we tried to find the same situation. Although we had a hard time finding a good market for a while – it was either too commercial, or too expensive. But now, we go to the Sunday market in Studio City, just down the hill, and we found the farmers that we like. So all the vegetable you see here are from there. Every Sunday, we shop all our fruits and vegetables for the week.

Living in Los Angeles, what does home mean to you today?
Cedric: It’s a really different lifestyle, we spend more time at home. In Paris, you are out all the time, like in NY. When we were looking for place to live,  I came across a castle like apartment in Hollywood that had a French name. I thought that may be funny to live in a French castle apartment in Los Angeles. We were really considering it, but somebody told us to live in a house, because that’s the Los Angeles style. Everyone lives in a house, and everyone invites everyone else over and that’s how people live here. So you should try this lifestyle. We thought that was a good advice, and decided to take it. After a search, I found this house here in Laurel Canyon. It felt good here.  

Has California been good for you?
Cedric:We are meeting more people, and often that connects to another. Of course the first year was tough, as we did not know many people, and our family and friends were away. And it was an interesting feeling for me to have so much time alone at home during the day because I work from home. Going back to Paris, you have the constant feeling of having people around you, just walking down the street. Paris is so small that you may end up running into your friends and maybe they have 15 minutes, and so do I, and you can have coffee together, completely improvised. Or, you go out at night and you know that eventually you’ll find your friends. But at the same time, you may live in the same apartment for years and never meet your neighbors.

But here, we arrive on the street, we meet the family next door, and in a couple of days, I had all the phone numbers and e-mails of people here on the street, in case of emergency. Maybe this street is special, but I find that there is a real sense of community not based on friendship at first, but from the shared geography and the land. It’s interesting because in Paris, we create the social landscape with friends and we’ll know to take care of each other and to stick together. But despite being so social, we want to reserve our privacy at home so the neighbors don’t necessarily become your friends. In October we had a 1st year anniversary in L.A. get together at our home, with the neighbors. We thought an American way would be a quick drink from 7-10pm, so we just had some cheese and wine prepared. But everyone stayed till 2 in the morning, thousands of bottles of wines around, and everyone was wasted! I thought it was great. We are neighbors, and did not know each other too well, but now we are playing guitar, drinking and even singing together. They must have been starving because we had nothing to eat but cheese, but everyone really stayed and had a great time. People went home for more bottles of wine, and came back…

Ai: And we found out there are a lot of creative people right next door! There are owners of Scandinavian furniture store, major studio’s music composition executive, a folk musician, and a set designer all living on this little block. I also feel that we are much closer to nature. Here, you hop into a car and in an hour you are at the ocean or in the beautiful mountains. We’re feeling free, feeling very close to the nature. Sunsets in L.A. are so special!

(After a meal, we are now moving onto the cheese.)
Ai: Here are five different kinds of goat cheese. I just find them easier to digest. Cheese is truly an after meal treat in France, and we are slowly trying to instill this in our friends we’ve met here. (laughs) Since you’ve had your meal already, you wouldn’t overdo on the cheese this way too. It seems to makes sense to have the fermented food at the end…to help your digestion. But we are still having dessert ! The dessert is a fruit juice seaweed jelly poured into the skin of the fruit then sliced like real fruit slices, and what i call the Cedric Cookies – I came up with this recipe for Cedric, who loves cookies and chocolate. I use almond meal (almond flour), not flour, and I shave Mast Brother’s Chocolate in them, and a little bit of maple syrup. I cut them up in small cubes, so you can eat a ton…Don’t worry, Cedric gets his own ziploc bag full! We usually keep a stock of these cookies at home. I am actually thinking about pulling together a book of recipes mixing our japanese american and french cultures and household tricks we’ve learned after having moved to LA.

Cedric, there are many photographs by you around the house. Please share some stories behind them.
Cedric: Many of these are my night time photo series. I’ve was always been fascinated by the fact that since a large majority of people live in the city, which is an environment with lots of lights at night, most don’t realize that you can see through the night, that night is not so dark. I grew up in the mountain, and I’ve driven out at night without the lights, and you can see so much. So when you see pictures like this, you are reminded that there is light in the night. To me the second day starts at night. This idea that night is not as dark as we think, comes from visual evolution of the city. You are reminded of how people are blinded by light in the city environment. Also it’s usually an hour or two exposure, so there is this aspect of how time accumulates, and whatever moves disappears, and whatever is still comes out super sharp. I really like this idea. In Basque country, I had this spot that I always went out to on the full moon night. Here, I still quite haven’t found that spot, but hopefully I will!

Thank you two for this beautiful day!

Interview: Aya Muto
Photography: Max Wanger