Star-crossed expats

Skye and Mendy met in London in 2016, through a little app called Instagram. Neither of us was from London originally (Skye is Australian and Mendy is American), but we bonded over a shared love of the city we both called home.

We have always been reluctant to call ourselves creatives. It’s not in our practical nature, but there is mounting evidence that we have a desire to communicate through images and words our shared love of place.

A quick glance through either of our Instagram accounts and you’ll see we enjoy a bit of history and trivia, architecture, and personal story. We really wish there were one word to encapsulate the elusive concept of sense of place, and the people and things that give meaning to its shape. (We tried to call our magazine “Locus” but said aloud it’s too similar to Locust, and we thought “Genius Loci” was fitting, but pretentious.)

As the bots infiltrated Instagram and our experience became less enjoyable over the years, we began asking ourselves, “what’s the point?” Why are we continuing to make content for an app that only looks after its ad revenue and not its users? Or for brands that treat our work as if it’s expired seconds after it’s seen? Then, you might recall, there was a global pandemic. Among all of the effects of this, these questions of futility were exacerbated and eventually untenable.

The consensus: scroll fatigue anaesthetised our authenticity.

Discussions of transferring to a different medium ping-ponged between us. Could we create something more tangible and meaningful—giving pause to appreciate not only photos, but pay homage to places, people, and moments that contribute to our sense of community, wherever it is and whoever constitutes our feeling of belonging? Tell stories of home and self and not Like Counts? We wanted deeper conversations about these places where we feel connection, and to explore our interest in how identity is rooted and expressed in that attachment.

We wanted substance. We wanted print.

So yes, Fieldfare was truly hatched (wink wink) in our Instagram messages. But now, dear reader, we hope that in you she takes flight.