March – Contributors

Tadas Kazakevicius
Photographer
— affairs

Lithuanian photographer Kazakevicius accompanied monocle’s Ed Stocker to meet Lithuania’s newest conscripts. “It was exciting to see the heavy artillery, army vehicles and the collaboration between US and Lithuanian troops. Somehow seeing all this provided me with a little psychological support in these hard times,” he says.

City-centre pad or sprawling country house? I live in central Vilnius, which is very convenient, but village life has its attractions too. Ideally, I would have both so I can “miss” one or the other at any one time.  

Claudia Jacob
Writer
— fashion

Jacob studied French and Spanish (with a side of Italian) at the University of Durham but her main love language is food. She’s usually found exploring a city’s most cherished restaurants and cafés, collecting cookbooks or settling down at a supper club. If you ever find yourself down and out in Paris or London, be sure to grill her for recommendations. For this issue, we dispatched her to the Dutch city of Arnhem where she reported on sustainable fashion brand Hul le Kes.

Where do you feel most at home? City-centre pad or sprawling country house? I’ll always have a soft spot for my pint-sized apartment in Paris. It was off a congested street in the vibrant 9th arrondissement but once you pushed open the heavy wooden doors and drowned out the sounds of the bustling city, I was greeted with an elegant Haussmann courtyard – a welcome oasis.

Haeryun Kang
Writer
— at the front

Hailing from Seoul, freelance journalist Kang writes for publications such Rolling Stone, NPR, Washington Post and Time. She also worked at Korea Exposé, an independent media organisation that highlights under-represented South Korean stories in English. For us she interviewed “wonderful filmmaker” Kim Bora. “It was inspiring to meet her because this year I have been developing my first documentary film, which is about the South Korean space programme,” she tells us. 

City-centre pad or sprawling country house?
A sprawling country house – but with very good wi-fi.

Kristin Bethge
Photographer
— culture

German photographer Bethge lives between Rio de Janeiro and Berlin. She found photography during a semester abroad in Lisbon and, fortunately, photography and the Portuguese language have stayed with her ever since. For this issue, she captured the movers and shakers in São Paulo’s art scene. “It was very exciting for me to look behind the scenes of a gallery, to get an insight into the life of a collector and walk through the exhibition with a curator,” she says. 

City-centre pad or sprawling country house?
I couldn’t choose one or the other. I love my apartments in the centre of Rio and Berlin because many things are so easy to reach and friends are close by. On the other hand, I always go out into the countryside to switch off and slow down. My thoughts are often clearer there and I make much better progress with my projects because there is less sensory overload. Don’t make me choose!

Ryo Kaneyasu
Illustrator 
— business

Illustrator Kaneyasu lives in Kurashiki City in Japan. A master of the minimalist line, he has a particular grasp of body language, breathing life into every illustration. When he’s not applying his talents to work on advertising, books, TV commercials and collaborations with fashion brands, he likes to stick on a record or watch a classic film. For us he illustrated a story on 10 tips for good development.

City-centre pad or sprawling country house?
I lived in Osaka for about 20 years but I got tired of the crowds and moved to my home town in Okayama. I like the feeling that time passes more slowly here.