Contributors

Our mobility-themed issue has come together thanks to the tireless efforts of our global network of creative folk. Find out about a few of the writers, illustrators and photographers we called on to report for Issue 176.

David Phelan
Writer
— inventory

Based in London, Phelan has been a journalist for almost three decades, writing on multiple topics but especially technology. He now serves as Monocle’s technology correspondent. He also works as an actor and has just finished a three-month tour in the theatre. “When compiling this month’s Tech Corner, I put one item, a wallet-tracking card, through its paces more emphatically than I meant to,” he says. “I forgot my wallet in a hired car and it efficiently pinged me its location for weeks.”

Tell us about your favourite journey.
Twice a year I drive with my partner to Mallorca, choosing this means of transport so we can take our dog. The winter journey is especially enjoyable as cold, wet London is gradually, confidently replaced by brighter French roads and properly warm Spain. 

Sehee Chae
Illustrator
— business

Chae, also known as “Pie”, is an illustrator who hails from Seoul. Her colourful images are inspired by Japanese pop culture of the 1980s. She works to capture the interactions between nature and people in a familiar yet respectful way. Chae has supplied illustrations for clients such as Naver, Google, Fissler, Hyundai and Korail, and has created album and book covers. We asked her to bring to life our story about small cars.

Tell us about a dream trip you’d like to go on one day.
It’s pretty simple: to ride a motorcycle or scooter around Jeju Island in South Korea.

Algirdas Bakas
Photographer
— expo

Lithuanian photographer Bakas works out of an 1860s train station not far from Vilnius. For this issue he captured the country’s national song-and-dance festival. “Since it was a very special event, it called for a special approach,” he says. “I used Kodak film and had so much fun shooting an event with medium-format cameras. It’s such a different and exciting experience to only see the images once the film has been developed,” he says. 

What piece of transport infrastructure could do with improving where you live?
Since I live next to the railway, I’d love to see Lithuanian rail updated to European standards, which would unlock fast and efficient train travel to the surrounding countries.  

Mia Levitin
Writer
— culture

Born in Moscow, Mia grew up near New York and has since called Paris, Rome and London home. Having previously toiled as a banker, she now writes about books and culture, and is the author of The Future of Seduction, a non-fiction book that asks powerful and necessary questions about the relationships of tomorrow. Among Mia’s favourite pastimes is chatting about books with Robert Bound on the Monocle on Culture radio show and podcast. For this issue, she has shared some of the new titles that she is most excited about this month.

How do you get around your city?
Whenever I can, I walk. A daily circuit during lockdown didn’t dull my delight in Hyde Park. The London plane trees and cygnets on the Serpentine still stop me in my tracks.

Rose Marie Cromwell
Photographer
— design

Cromwell is a photographer and artist who lives in Miami. We dispatched her to Havana to train her lens on the Richard Neutra-designed house where the Swiss ambassador lives with his husband. “It’s a fascinating experience to be able to chat with a diplomat, especially one working in a country as unique as Cuba,” she says. “They have a beautiful art collection, including many Cuban and Swiss artists, and I loved getting to take a peek at it.” 

Is there a trip that you dream of taking? 
It would be a sailing surf trip somewhere in the South Pacific. I would love to learn more about sailing and find some empty glassy waves to surf.