Antoine Bruy - Scrublands

While city dwellers often dream of a life unplugged from the density, noise, and pressures of modern living, few are able or willing to cut ties with the convenience it affords. In his series, Scrublands, French artist Antoine Bruy draws focus on the lives of people who have chosen to leave behind the commotion of urban living in search of a more simple and self-sufficient life.

Between 2010 and 2015, Bruy travelled throughout Europe and the United States in search of those who have embraced an off-grid lifestyle, far from the nearest Wi-Fi hotspot or grocery store. Using the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) network to locate individuals and communities practicing subsistence farming and using renewable energy sources, Bruy visited people living in remote areas ranging from the Carpathian Mountains in Romania to the Rockies in Colorado. Often staying with his subjects for weeks or months at a time, he takes part in their way of life—helping with the work and responsibilities necessary to live off-grid. Using a medium format film camera, Bruy documents his encounters, offering a glimpse into a world of ingenuity, isolation, and wilderness. 

Brought together, the images in Scrublands meditate on the experiences of those who have chosen to trade a life of industrialized comfort for one of solitude and autonomy.

Gary Cooper

Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; 1901 – 1961) was an iconic American actor renowned for his defining strong, silent screen persona and natural, understated acting style.

Spanning 36 years from the silent film era through the Golden Age of Hollywood, his career featured leading roles in 84 feature films, solidifying him as the ultimate representation of the ideal American hero.

The American Film Institute ranked him 11th among the 50 greatest screen legends of classical Hollywood cinema.

Béret et Compagnie

Béret et Compagnie is an artisanal, ethical négoce (wine merchant label) project located in Anjou within France's Loire Valley.

Founded by winemaker Bruno Ciofi, the project assists small-scale, natural wine producers who practice organic or biodynamic farming but lack the infrastructure or resources to bottle, market, and commercialise their own wines.

Bruno Ciofi brings deep biodynamic expertise to the label. He previously spent 13 years working alongside natural wine pioneer Jean-Pierre Frick at Domaine Pierre Frick in Alsace, followed by a transformative tenure at Domaine de la Pinte in Jura.

All vinification relies heavily on wild, native yeasts and explicitly excludes synthetic inputs or additives.

Ron Fernandez

Ron Fernandez was trained as a Cultural Anthropologist. After graduating from University of California, Santa Barbara, he did research on ethnic identity in Montreal among Portuguese and Spanish immigrants. 

He received a Ph.D. from McGill University and then taught for a few years at the University of British Columbia. Next, for a dozen years, he worked with International Plywood Corporation in California where he learned about importing and the world wood trade. Eventually, he started a company importing Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Fretted Instruments. He moved to Anacortes 10 years ago with his wife Jeanette who has since passed away. Ron plays Flamenco and Portuguese Guitar everyday and takes long walks around town.

He is a member of the Sunflower Fund - providing great support for Ukraine.

Drill Sergeant Schmidt

"Ausbilder Schmidt" (“Drill Sergeant Schmidt”) is a German comedian played by comedian Holger Müller.

He is a loud, stereotypical military drill instructor famous for shouting his catchphrase "Morgen ihr Luschen!" ("Morning, you wimps!"). His routines parody military life, strict discipline, and absurd "war stories" from his childhood and family life. He frequently incorporates the live audience into his shows as "recruits" for imaginary manoeuvres.

The character is highly popular in Germany, spanning live stand-up tours, comedy albums, and merchandising like themed clothing.

Bernard (Dov) Spolsky

Professor Bernard (Dov) Spolsky (1932–2022) was a New Zealand-born linguist and pioneer in educational linguistics, sociolinguistics, and language policy. Educated at Wellington College and Victoria University, he served as a professor at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and wrote seminal works on language management and Indigenous language revitalization.

He earned his BA and MA in New Zealand before completing a Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of Montreal in 1966.

Polsky directed early foundational studies on Navajo sociolinguistics in the United States and surveyed Indigenous languages like te reo Māori and Samoan.

Polsky served as president of both the TESOL International Association (1978–1979) and the International Association of Language Testers (ILTA).

Moustaches & Berets

 

First Day of Issue - Chasseurs Alpins

The First Day of Issue (Premier Jour) for the famous French Chasseurs Alpins centennial stamp was 25 June 1988, held in the historic alpine cradle of Grenoble (Isère). 

The stamp was beautifully brought to life by master designer and engraver Jean Delpech. What makes the visual layout so compelling is its split-era composition, capturing the evolution of the infantrymen over a 100-year span:

On the left, is a Chasseur Alpin from the year 1888, when the unit was formed. He sports the early practical mountain gear, carrying a heavy pack, a traditional rifle, and wearing the "tarte".

On the right stands his modern counterpart, equipped with late-20th-century alpine warfare gear, proving that while technology changes, the rugged spirit remains the same.

The background seamlessly ties them together with the stark, jagged peaks of the French Alps, the natural playground and battleground of these elite troops.

Alejandro Finisterre

Alejandro Finisterre (born Alexandre Campos Ramírez; 1919 –2007) was a Spanish anarchist poet, publisher, and inventor. He is most famous for inventing futbolín, the Spanish version of table football (foosball).

Born in Fisterra, Galicia, he moved to Madrid as a teenager, working various jobs—including as a tap dancer and typesetter - to fund his education. During the Spanish Civil War, his home was bombed, leaving him severely injured and buried in the rubble.

While recovering at a hospital in Catalonia, he noticed that many injured children and fellow patients could no longer play association football. Inspired by table tennis, he collaborated with a local carpenter to attach wooden players to steel bars over a pine table, patenting the design in Barcelona in 1937. He also patented a foot-pedal page-turner for musicians.

Following Franco's fascist victory, Finisterre fled Spain. He was imprisoned in Morocco before eventually building a successful publishing career in Latin America, where he even played table football with Ché Guevara in Guatemala.

Because of his ties to the Spanish Republican government-in-exile, Francoist agents kidnapped him in Guatemala following the 1954 U.S.-backed coup. Placed on a plane bound for Madrid, Finisterre executed one of the world's first recorded aircraft hijackings using only a bar of soap. He wrapped the soap in newspaper, locked himself in the toilet, and emerged threatening to blow up the aircraft. The sympathetic crew and passengers forced an emergency landing in Panama, allowing him to escape. 

Puesteros by Pie Aerts

Dutch documentary photographer Pie Aerts spent six years documenting the isolated lives of ageing gauchos, known as puesteros (lone cowboys), in the remote Magallanes region of Chilean Patagonia.

This long-form documentary project culminated in his highly acclaimed photo series and first monograph titled Coirón, published by GOST Books.

The subjects are a dwindling group of roughly 14 lone gauchos aged between 50 and 85, living on vast, isolated private estates (estancias) where they live completely alone for months at a time.

They are named after coirón, a rugged native Patagonian grass that survives the harshest winds, cold, and poor soils. The project breaks the stoic, romanticised cowboy myth and exposes intense physical labour, financial insecurity, and severe mental health struggles or alcoholism driven by profound lifelong isolation.

It's a meditation on stillness, human resilience and the inevitable passing of time. A portrait of men living at the edge of the world pushing through because they must, through silence, endurance and repetition.

Severino Varela

Severino Varela (1913 –1995) was a legendary Uruguayan footballer who played as a striker and became a historic icon for both Peñarol and Boca Juniors.

Renowned for his exceptional ball control, aerial prowess, and clinical penalty-taking, he famously played every match wearing a white beret, earning him the affectionate nickname "Boina Fantasma" (The Ghost Beret).

Severino Varela’s white beret was initially worn for a purely practical reason: to keep his hair out of his eyes and to cushion the impact of the heavy leather balls used in the 1930s and 1940s. Over time, this utilitarian accessory transformed into one of the most iconic personal brands in South American football history.

The stark white beret against the dark pitch gave Varela a powerful visual presence. It made him instantly recognizable to his teammates making long crosses, while simultaneously striking fear into opposing goaltenders who dreaded the sight of the white wool diving into the box.

Juana de Ibarbourou

Juana de Ibarbourou (born Juana Fernández Morales) was a legendary Uruguayan poet and one of the most widely read female literary figures in Latin America.

Known affectionately as "Juana de América," her early work revolutionized regional poetry by combining striking sensuality, eroticism, and a deep pantheistic identification with nature. Over her career, she received multiple nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Her initial collections, Las lenguas de diamante (1919) and Raíz salvaje (1922), are celebrated for their simple language, physical passion, and youthful joy.

La rosa de los vientos marked a shift toward modernism, introducing themes of declining youth and fading vitality.

Following personal loss, domestic hardships, and illness, her work in collections like Perdida transformed into expressions of deep despair and dark psychological depth.

In 1929, she was formally given the title "Juana de América" at the Legislative Palace of Uruguay. She broke numerous barriers for women in literature, including becoming the first woman in Uruguay to receive a full state funeral upon her death in 1979. Today, her portrait is preserved on the Uruguayan 1,000-peso banknote 

Osiris Rodríguez Castillos

Born in Montevideo but raised in Sarandí del Yí, Osiris is considered one of the great pillars of Uruguayan folklore and gaucho poetry. 

He revitalized the criollo genre and strongly influenced popular song throughout the Río de la Plata region with timeless classics such as "Camino de los Quileros , " "De Corrales a Tranqueras," and "La Galponera."

Along with his thick glasses and the cigarette ("puchito") in his mouth, the Basque beret makes up his indispensable classic silhouette. This combination was so iconic that the drawings and caricatures that headed the publications of his poems always portrayed him wearing it.

 

PGHM

The French Gendarmerie Nationale’s Peloton de Gendarmerie de Haute Montagne (PGHM) wear the same beret of the Chasseurs Alpins. This shared heritage isn’t accidental: the PGHM’s mountain rescue units grew out of the same alpine traditions that shaped France’s elite mountain infantry.

The beret is large, flat, and traditionally navy‑blue, designed to sit low and wide. For the Chasseurs Alpins, the tarte became an emblem of identity in the high Alps; for the PGHM, adopting the same form reflects continuity with that mountain culture rather than a military role.

Today, the PGHM’s tarte is both practical and symbolic. It offers warmth, weather and wind protection in harsh alpine conditions, but more importantly, it signals the unit’s deep connection to France’s long history of mountain expertise — a quiet visual link between rescuers and the soldiers who first defined the country’s alpine tradition.