Boe Marion is a photographer who lives in BedStuy and works all over. Sometimes he directs shorter movies, which he enjoys a lot. He also loves adventure fairy tales and tall tales.
Martin Cole is a digital artist making mostly collage and moving image pieces. He has a graphic design and illustration background, before working as a high-end retoucher at an agency for six years. He has been living in Berlin for 10 years, but is originally from England.
Where are you quarantined? How did you end up there?
Martin Cole: In my apartment on the West side of Berlin, Germany. It’s been home for the past ten years.
Boe Marion: In my dreams, I am quarantined with all my friends out in nature, baking bread on hot stones and drinking beer. But I constantly wake up from that dream and then find myself in Stuyvesant Heights, which is indeed lovely also but in a different way.
Who are you quarantined with? How is it going?
MC: I’m Quarantined with my girlfriend and our dog. Home life has not changed for us; we work from our home studio. But, going for a walk or to the supermarket has become a military operation.
BM: My wife, Olivia, and our grey male cat, Miso, and our plants. It’s been great.
What is your current state of mind?
MC: I know it could be like this for 18 months and I can see past that.
BM:“Nocturama”
What was your biggest worry one month ago? What is it now?
MC: If I’m honest, the supermarket always felt like a mission. But I think like most, the health of our loved ones.
BM: I don’t really worry much. But a month or so ago, having enough time to be in nature was something I longed for. And now that I have all the time in the world, different institutions around the US are closing down nature... I have mixed feelings about that. Where I come from, Nature doesn’t have a closing time.
What was your most treasured possession one month ago? What is it now?
MC:It would have been my art books, and even more so now I guess. Some are pretty old, hard to find, or very specific.
BM: My Truck. My Truck.
If you could have dinner with one person this evening, who would it be? What would you eat?
MC: It would be my girlfriend and she would make black noodles with lotus roots. Fingers crossed she reads this.
BM:My Mother, Marianne. We would eat her Lasagna.
What is your biggest pre-quarantine regret?
MC: I think it would be the same for me and my girlfriend... putting off visiting our families until later in the year. There is a question mark to that now.
BM: Regrets are very regretful and therefore not useful.
What do you value most in people?
MC: Positivity and good sense of humour, again, even more so now.
BM:Being able to listen.
What do you value most in your work?
MC: It’s something I worried about not having, and that’s a defined style. I like to try new things, different looks, and adapt to a brief or an idea.
BM: Freedom to create something three dimensional from something that was nothing at all.
What are you looking forward to?
MC: Post-quarantine restaurants and travel.
BM: My friends and my family.
