The Notes.

Artists Melanie & Stephanie Hausberger

When the sky and ocean meet, they embrace like old friends. A body of water. A body of light. Each harnessing truth. Power. And beauty. Two as one. One as two. A moment born from a surrender to the sun. When the sky and ocean meet it is without need for control. There is no place for ego when you are shaped by the horizon. There is harmony in the heartbeat. An alignment between the blues. For artist sisters Melanie and Stephanie Hausberger, one is navy. The other is smalt blue. A palette created in utero, together.

When you’re taking photos of one another, what are you looking for?

Capturing a certain feeling.

Words seem near impossible to describe how it feels when you create together. So instead, can you tell me what it sounds like? Do you talk to each other? 

Yes we talk. A lot actually. Sometimes music or podcasts too.

The female body is a subject you have been exploring since a very young age. Looking back to when you first started drawing, do you think your fascination began consciously or subconsciously?

Definitely unconscious. 

New York and the Tyrolean Alps are strikingly different places to live. How does this shift in energy influence your work and your view on the world?

Coming from the alps in a way made us more curious about culture and the world generally. Both have completely different energies. We like to be inspired by both and are very lucky call both places home.

When working on a piece together, how do you release control to allow the other into the canvas?  

We both don’t feel the desire to control anything when working on a piece together, actually it’s the opposite. 

Your lives began in utero together, what differences do you find yourselves individually drawn to?  

Stephanie loves to plan, Melanie tends to avoid planning.

If you could describe one another as a colour, what would it be and why?

Stephanie is navy, just classic. Melanie is smalt blue, sky and ocean.

Who are the women you are influenced by and why?

Probably our mum the most. Her energy, her passion for certain things. And our grandmother, her perspective on things, her style.

What parts of yourself do you see in one another that you like?

We both probably see more the parts we don’t like in each other and frankly, many of them are the same. One is unnecessary talking.

All images were taken by the artists @melstephhausberger

Artist Katharina Kaminski for Lovewant Magazine Issue 37

Born and raised in Uruguay, artist Katharina Kaminski believes we are co creating with life. Her hands travel through clay, nature's rebirth from earth, caressing and considering what it means to be here in the now, how we arrived, and who we are beneath it all. Like a wide eyed newborn full of wonder and awe, her visions come to life through sculptures that embody parts of herself she may or may not have met before. Eternally evolving in unison with her work, Katharina’s belief system is the powerful reminder we all need to hear.

 “ We are so used to being alive, we forget how miraculous it all is.”

What is the meaning of creation for you?

I love this question. I love creation. I think a lot about creation. Creation can be so enjoyable and exhilarating but creation can also unveil frustration and make us look face to face with our shadows. And when I think of creation, I am thinking about everything, I am thinking of my whole experience. From a sculpture or a painting, to my relationships, my home, my work, what I am doing today, everything. I think we are the creation of ‘God’/’Universe’/’Mother Nature’ but we are also the creators holding that same power that created us ourselves. I think there is a bit of a collective

What is the most profound lesson you have had to learn through your craft? 

Patience, resilience. Constant inner check ins. It's an ongoing lesson. I don’t think it ever ends. There is always a next level to be unlocked.

What inspired your exploration of color and movement in your work? 

Mother nature and my inner experience of being alive, embodied in a human form on planet earth. We are so used to ‘being alive’ that we forget how miraculous it all is. Look at the world as if you were looking at it for the first time and you will be amazed.

Your sculptures ignite a visceral connection between body and soul. Do you feel like you have met them before?

Hmm. It's complex. Yes and no! It feels many times like ‘Wow! Nice to meet you! Where do you come from and how did you manage to become bodily through my hands?!’ but it also can sometimes feel like: ‘I remember you from a past life or something and I can feel our resonance, like maybe you are me and I am you’.

How do you know when your work is complete? What does it feel like?

I guess that's something I'm continuously finding out. But when a work is complete, it feels right to let it be.

How do you see the relationship between the viewer and your art?

That’s the one thing that exceeds me. I am glad that viewers connect with my work but it's not something I can control. And I can’t even really know what they see. I have my own intimate relationship with the works and they have theirs. It's beautiful and it's strange in a way, especially collectors that live in their spaces with my creations. They see the sculptures everyday and they have their own intimate relationship with them, which is a different connection from the one that I have, because we are different beings with different human experiences, different lenses. I can’t tell you how to see my work, I can’t tell you how to feel it. And sometimes that can be also challenging. Especially when the works have such a deep meaning for the artist. At some point you need to let go of that, and let it become also something else through the eyes of others. But that’s the beauty of putting the art out there and letting it touch others in infinite, different possible ways! The other day someone said he disliked one of my sculptures. And I said thank you! I truly appreciated generating that! And their honesty. To me, art doesn’t have to be just beautiful. Art is about feelings and what it reflects back from your own personal experience.

When thinking about Mother Nature, what is your relationship to her?

She is my Goddess and she is me as well.

You resonate with the notion that nature doesn’t want to put you in a box. How do you stay outside of it?

When a baby is born, there is paperwork the hospitals fill, and one of the main concerns is the sex. There is one box for girls, and another box for boys. And you are not supposed to mark both. The idea that someone might not conform to the binary norm is disturbing to many. But this is just due to the lack of information there is. It’s estimated that almost 2% of the population are born intersex (somewhere in between the binary norm of sex as we have been taught). Which is a similar percentage as people with red hair. But of course sex is not necessarily visible in the street and remains to be a stigmatized topic. Because of this, many kids born with intersex traits, have to go through unconsented, uninformed and irreversible surgeries, which the intersex community is fighting against. Long story short, the evidence shows that human beings don't have to necessarily fit in one of the female or male boxes. I consider myself a woman but medically speaking, my womanhood looks different than most, and I believe that this shouldn't be seen and treated as a ‘problem’, but be embraced as another of the infinite ways Mother Nature expresses itself. There is no real proof that my ‘condition’ is a ‘mistake’ and I believe the mistake is actually making intersex kids perceive their beautiful perfectly healthy bodies is a mistake. Instead of promoting self acceptance and even self celebration. We are all unique, with different looks and capacities, and I think that is beautiful.

All images were taken by the artist @katharina.kaminski

Film Photographer Nigel Malone

To be seen. What does it really feel like? Who’s locking eyes with who? To hold a moment in your bare hands. To envelop time and space with the blink of a lens. To be unapologetically, completely, truly, madly seen. A gentle, intentional press of the shutter takes us to a place that would be hard to believe if not for the evidence captured on film by photographer Nigel Malone. Each shot lands somewhere between here and there. That place within ourselves we never really see, until someone cares deeply enough to take a closer look inside.

What does it feel like when you press the shutter button?

I shoot film, so every shutter press is precious. You have to wind on after every frame before you can take another one, and periodically reload. All of that means there’s a lot of downtime where you might miss a shot. So you must make every shutter press count.Pressing the shutter is therefore a matter of resources and timing. A little like clay pigeon shooting, where you only get two shots and need to swing the barrel ahead of the target. It’s about getting the anticipation perfectly right, first time. Pressing the shutter also signals a cognitive shift from left-brain, technical aspects of shutter speed and aperture settings to right-brain, storytelling and feeling. Much like handing in an exam, with every shutter press and roll of film shot comes an anxious wait for the film to be processed and proofed, before you know whether you hit your target or not.

Do you have a mantra you go to when seeking direction or inspiration?

It’s hard to say definitively. I have a mantra that I’ve lived my creative life around - “Act like the herd, end up as steak” - which in essence means if you do what everyone else does, you’re likely to be eaten alive. But in photography, almost everything has been done before, so it’s challenging to find a completely new approach. I like finding new combinations of classical elements. It’s part of the reason why I’ve gone back to analog when everyone else is digital or AI - it’s one way of breaking away from the herd.

When capturing a face what are you looking for?

A friend of mine painted a large portrait of two of my dogs that have since passed. It’s quite surreal, like something from Picasso’s blue period. The outstanding feature of what is a huge painting are the tiny dots of white paint, the catchlight in their eyes, which is so powerful and revealing of their character. So for me, it is always about the eyes. Eyes can say everything or nothing, and as a portrait photographer, it’s your job to create a mood that encourages them to reveal something rarely seen.

Are there any parts of shooting on film that make you nervous?

All of it. The technical aspects, ensuring a perfect negative full of information from shadows to highlights. To engage with another human, the subject, to build an understanding, an openness that allows authenticity and character to exude in a form that we both find surprising.

Tell me the story behind this photo 

For much of my life, I thought that I would be at the end of the genetic line - I never really considered having children. Not because I didn’t like children, but mostly because I didn’t like parents. But also a concern for the world of which they would inherit. At about the same time I reconciled my relationship with my father, I met Lucy. The broken line started to from from the past - and into the future with the birth of Winnie. I’ve lost count of the experiences I wouldn't swap for anything in the world as a result of becoming a father and a parent. This photo is one of them.

Photograph by Ernst Hass

Is there anything or anyone you have lost that you wish you had photographed?

I’ve lost the opportunity to photograph my mother and father in their youth. They are still alive, but it’s only in later years that I’ve come to fully understand how they have shaped my life in so many positive ways - how much of them I am. Even more so, now that I have become a father. But I was selfish when I was younger; I saw value in photographing other things - mistakenly.

When your daughter is old enough to ask you why you take photos, how will you explain it to her?

I’ve always been fascinated with science, particularly climate, glaciers and mountains. I liken taking photos to the climate scientists who venture into the Arctic to drill and extract ice cores to see how our climate has changed over the years. My pictures work like core samples. Each one drills down into a moment - one night, one person. On its own, it doesn’t tell you much, but as they accumulate over the years, you can see the patterns, the changes in a community, an individual, or a culture.

All images are the artists own @5point6_pictures

Do you think you'd allow your younger self to have social media?

If I could go back and balance the boundaries of sharing music and art while protecting my personal life, that's how I’d do it. I’d keep my kids off social media as long as possible. I wouldn't want my younger self to have it and allow strangers opinions to be in my hands at all times.

Close my eyes was the first song you started, and the last one you finished on this album. Was that a full circle moment?

Definitely. Especially because the first album was in COVID, I was fearful it was a fluke or just a product of the time, and I wouldn't write anything I loved as much. So finishing with this song was a massive hurdle. It was the first thing that kicked off the lyrical tone. Going through your late 20s, everything is starting to get real around you. Now I can't imagine the EP album without it.

‘Nostalgia for a time that never existed’ is the title of your tour. The word for that is anemoia, What is that feeling?

A lot of the songs were written when my life was not still. I was constantly surrounded by people in motion. Touring is amazing but it can be quite lonely. You're in this odd state where you’re feeling every emotion. It almost feels like a dream. I wanted my show to feel like that. I’m talking about very personal things to me, but they're inevitably things that are so universal, it feels like we have such similar experiences as humans.

In your song ‘Garden Life’ you sing ‘I am alcohol swimming through your system’. Have you always felt things on such a visceral level?

That's my favourite song and one of my favourite lyrics. I’ve always felt things on a tangible level. Growing up, I found myself bottling up emotions and ignoring them. Believing they would just go away on their own. These days I know better, I tend to face things head on. Writing is one of the best ways to express how I feel.

If you were a young boy growing up today, what would you be most afraid of?

How uncertain the future feels. During a time that feels like theres constant negative news, maybe I’d be less of a dreamer. But I’d like to believe I’d pursue music no matter what.

Singer songwriter Luke Hemmings for Lovewant Magazine Issue 34

There is a space between The Boy and the ether where Luke Hemmings has found solace. Anxieties are met with a gentle understanding. Fears are faced with passion. Poetry and dreaming are the chosen languages. And there is pure magic found amidst the madness. This is the birthplace of his latest solo album. Boy.

You write a lot about time. How do you manage to slow it down?

The older you get, you find peace and healing returning to more childlike things. As a creative, it's important to find time to do nothing. It’s a privilege to be bored. I do nothing and think I don’t know how to write songs anymore. Then they’ll slowly start to creep in and consume my life again.

You also ask ‘What comes after me?’  What is your aftermath?

It’s less about what I achieved in my career. It's the way my loved ones think about me, the family I build and what they'll think of me when I'm gone. It’s the impression that you leave.

Photography by Bec Parsons  @bec_parsons @lukehemmings