Henry Fonda as “Young Mr. Lincoln”

There is a scene in John Ford’s 1939 film “Young Mr. Lincoln” in which the young Abraham Lincoln, played by Henry Fonda, is reading the first book on law that has ever come into his hands, and he comes across a passage which inspires the thought that, “that’s all there is to it, right and wrong.”

Similar to the way the character of young Abe was struck by the root simplicity of law, I was a few months ago surprised to learn that the core concepts of sustainability were not detrimental to business, as it would seem on the green over all “crunchy” face in popular culture, but in fact support business and the growth of industries. Patrick Duffy, who is in charge of the sustainability element of Manufacture New York’s mission, broke sustainability down into three categories: environmental, social, and economic. I already believed that ecologically responsible manufacturing was an important concept, but I had never really considered the other two components as related to sustainability, and to what extent that, with a little bit of extra planning and foresight, businesses can be both less destructive and more profitable.

Take for instance, pro-active healthcare services. If a company buys the cheapest health plan it can “afford” then employees will not have preventative care and will have trouble seeing doctors. However, that usually results in more sick days and employees coming to work sick and infecting the team, and so on, which is unproductive. The smarter bet is a plan that cares for the employees before they get sick, and allows them to see doctors as soon as they need one. This I understood before, but I had never though of it as related to sustainability, I just thought it was smart business.

There is a lot of resistance in the fashion industry to sustainable practices like local manufacturing and clothing that doesn’t have planned obsolescence. However, usually when you talk to consumers about sustainable fashion they tune out fairly quickly. It’s not really a selling point for most people, that their purchases will have a low environmental impact. So, I wonder a great deal about how to make sustainable fashion, or responsible design as it’s often called now, something that isn’t an option, it’s just everything. How do you get away from the push back typically resulting from providing a consumer with a moral choice in their shopping? I think you go around it. How to do that, I don’t know yet. I hope there is a simple solution.

To me, there are three basic elements of a strong image: composition, tension, and detail. The composition tells the viewer where to look, the tension between the elements in the frame makes the suggestion of story perceptible, and the detail is the part of the image that the viewer is intended to see with perfect clarity, to understand as real.

The machine gets in the way of communicating.

Finding your true expressions in photography involve transcending the tools. I’ve spent almost 15 years shooting with Pentax cameras, not just because they make really beautiful lenses, but because they don’t tend to move the buttons around from model to model, allowing me to more easily forget about the technical side and just feel the image coming into being.

You have to know the technical side very well to escape its pull on your attention. It has to become second nature. If your head is clogged with half-remembered notions about technical settings, you have a diminished capacity to think about how your breathing is affecting the subtle movements of the camera in your hands.

The camera does not see as we do. Much of becoming an excellent photographer is becoming a methodical photographer. Practicing movements with the camera as one would practice movements in t’ai chi ch’uan is a tao toward thinking past the metal and glass between your hands, enabling you to sense and capture the beautiful vulgarity of half moments in front of you, or those undreamed revelations always over the next hill as we travel.

I feel that danger in myself. But I tell myself, I’m an artist and a storyteller, and I have a lot to give the world. I don’t want to die in disrespect to my gifts. We all have struggles. To tell the truth to ourselves and push it away is easy. To tell the truth to others and push it away is hard. There are a lot of very smart and talented people with addictions in this world, and yet we are burdened by fear of what might be. What would happen if I tell my parents about what I actually do every day? What would happen if I tell a lover my truths in our relationship? These barriers are opportunities. The world puts walls in front of us so we can break them down. The struggle is life itself. Only by pushing forward, by taking the hard road, will we achieve the promise of our powers. The decision to change is a difficult one. Maybe you write a letter. Maybe you ask someone to go for a long walk. Maybe you just leave what’s holding you back. In religion, the leap of faith often plays a key role in worship. Gods and sin aside, it is a very human act. Will you trust the world to turn out alright if you don’t control everything? Until you release the control and let the supreme wager ride, nothing real can happen. It is always the most difficult path, to walk away from the one thing you can control, but in doing so you transition to equilibrium. Find equilibrium. Find peace with yourself. Unburden yourself from the consequences of flesh, and take that leap of faith to just be righteous. Addiction prevents us from reaching potential. You have one life. You are the summation of all the promise of all the struggles of every generation that came before you. There is only one chance to make yourself the best person in image and in truth. Come what may, stand for something good and indelible. Find it in yourself to resist the temptation to betray the hope of all those impossibly strong-willed ancestors who came before you, all of whom decided to live.

Dream To Seam – Agatha Ruiz de la Prada from modaCYCLE on Vimeo.

modaCYCLE’s Seth Friedermann sits down with famed Spanish designer Agatha Ruiz de la Prada for an in-depth interview about how she works. This is the second episode of the Dream To Seam series.

The place is packed with people. Many have inexplicably brought small children. I wonder how the museum is promoting itself if this is the demographic they attract. The kids are understandably bored out of their minds. The drone of voices in here is amazing, thousands of conversations unrelated to the museum or its collections. Most of these people should have gone to The Disney Store instead. It is difficult to read the descriptions of the art being hit by purses and strollers every few moments. Losing oneself in a study of the works is near impossible, [it’s like being in a cafeteria line. Perhaps coming here during the holidays was a bad idea.]

I am surprised to learn that Ray and Charles Eames designed molded plywood products for the military during World War II, substituting the new material for metals, which were then in short supply.

Also of interest were many photos, like a solarized print of hands by Man Ray. I have a book of his work at home, but seeing an original print, even the same size as it would be in a coffee table book, is interesting. There is a retained freshness in the original print that does not come through in a copy. A print by Guy Bourdin, evidently of stained concrete or plaster, I have never seen it before. Finding it here felt like a vitamin booster shot recalling certain images in my Brera series. Third was an Avedon photo, recognizable as such from across the room, although the subject was uninteresting to me. The style of light and composition stood out.

Another area of interest was architectural drawings and models, most of which were concepts never executed. What struck me was how many brilliant ideas never make it off the drawing board or out of 1/100th scale. Like the Guy Bourdin photo, this energized me, to keep trying. So many plans, models, sketches, and eventually something gets built, or they lead to other kinds of projects, like Eames military glider noses leading to so much else. Hope?

Gauguin painted on burlap, Van Gogh painted with fury, piling pigments high, Munch is virtually doing watercolors with oils.

Cezanne though, the color, the effect at different distances, amazing. Another I didn’t understand from prints.

"Turnign Road At MontGeroult" by Paul Cezanne (1898)

"Pines and Rocks" by Paul Cezanne (1897)

"Still Life With Apples" by Paul Cezanne (1895-1898)

Starry Night is mobbed; every few minutes a flash goes off and a security guard yells. The [museum’s] light on this canvas is intentionally dim. Are many of the gawkers? No one else is looking at the brush strokes.

Seurat was amazing. The pointalist thing doesn’t always work very well, but he knew how to do it. He really knew how to do it.

Despite the crowd and chaos, it was a good day. In fact, after recovering from vacation, I started painting again on Wednesday. Someone discarded an art projector in the hallway a few months ago and I am using it to paint from a photograph that didn’t quite work right. The idea of the image was right though, and that is what I hope to bring to life. My mind has been chaotic lately and painting melts it away. Seeing the Guy Bourdin print in the museum, combined with reading Gauguin and reading all this material on the other Impressionists, has restored some self-confidence. A friend has an art show coming up and I hope to show and maybe even sell a few new pieces. I need to get some lazy demons out of my head. Running modaCYCLE seems to run me into the ground a little too often. I love it, helping fashion designers tell their stories is amazing, but I need to also keep telling my own stories.

Even if I got some sort of digital Super IMAX 4D rig, I’m not sure I’d be happy.

Part of being an artist is being never really satisfied with your tools or your last piece. If we get happy we stop.

Dream To Seam – Ralph Rucci from modaCYCLE on Vimeo.

Dream To Seam is an interview series from modaCYCLE. This episode features top American fashion designer Ralph Rucci.