Interviews

Andrew Lichtenstein for The New School Free Press (2017)

- Where are you from-what are some of the main highlights of your life story?

 - I’m from New York. I was born in New York to New Yorkers. But when I was young, seven or eight, my mother got a job in Boston, and she moved the family to Boston and I consciously felt that those were years of exile—because we weren’t in New York, we were uprooted, because Boston is a horrible little town. I mean what did I know? I was a kid. I had friends, I guess I had fun. But when I was seventeen I moved back to New York.

- Highlight/s of your life story?

- Things that I did when I was younger that had a large effect on me: I spent a lot of time in Haiti, for the overthrow of Aristide, and the military dictatorship there. And I went to South Africa for Mandela’s election. And I walked from NY to DC with the homeless. So I think those are three things that I did–all as a photographer–that all shaped me as a person and were more meaningful than the actual fact of just being there and taking pictures, it had a lasting effect.

- What frustrates you and why? 

- Umm. I am frustrated mostly economically. I don’t feel free to do the work that I am thinking about and want to do, that I am naturally inclined to do. I don’t feel–for myself– that I know how or understand how to make that financially viable. And so, that has/is/and will continue to be, basically, my life’s struggle, is Art vs. Commerce.

- What’s your favorite color?

- Green.

- Current favorite musician/s?

- I think anything that Radiohead does, I just… I love Radiohead. I really like the song writer Ryan Adams, I think he makes beautiful music. I really like The Roots. I love music across the board–pretty much all different genres–maybe with the single exception of Nashville Pop. Sorry…. But there’s different times/situations that make you want to listen to different things.

- Does the music you’re listening to shape or influence what you’re looking for in a photo.

- I love music. I also love being passionate about something that I don’t have any knowledge or invested interest in. I can’t play, I have no interest in playing, I’m not in a band, I don’t want to be in a band, I can’t read music–so I just love things in my life that I’m fully engaged in, but completely separated from.

- What’s your favorite NYC spot/where do you choose to reflect? And why?

- Well the spot in NY where I’ve been going my whole life, and that I’ve watched change and transform–where I’ll still go for a reflective moment–is Tompkins Square Park, simply because all the time I’ve spent in that park and all the memories I have from that park, and the evolution of the park, and photographing the park–it’s basically where I started being a photographer. I would photograph the homeless living in the park and then being kicked out of the park–so it’s a different place now, but you can still sit under a tree on a bench. So I think I return to that place pretty often.

- How has NYC changed in your lifetime?

- Well NYC is a completely different city then when why I lived here as a kid–with limited memories–but let’s just start from when I really moved back in 1983. New York is a completely different city now. There is a tendency to romanticize the past New York, when it was a much rougher place­–it was just rougher, it was poorer, it was more dangerous, there was little help from anybody. I mean, if something happened to you in the New York that I romanticize–let’s say the mid-80s, the late 80s–there was no recourse, police weren’t going to help you, just shitty things happened to people all the time.

Like I recently saw a young woman getting groped on the street and when she told the police they did nothing about it: that is a reflection of an older New York, because that would be kind of accepted back then. But in this New York, you could go to the commander and complain about the policeman, there would be consequences, or you could report that to a member in the media and something would happen, the policeman would get in trouble.

The city is much wealthier, much cleaner, much less-creative… You have to wonder how much of it is and always has been a young-person city, you have to wonder how much of it is me getting old and losing touch with what’s happening because I’m getting old, and how much of it is the city changing. And I don’t think that there is any one real answer to that, it’s probably both, all the time.

- So what are some of your hobbies? Not including photo obviously. What do you do in your spare time?

- Well it’s hard living in New York because I really feel connected to the wilderness and need to spend time in the wilderness, and I struggle with that here in New York because basically from Portland, Maine to Richmond, Virginia, is continuous city. I need to get away more often, but I love exploring and hiking and climbing mountains.

- What triggered you to start teaching?

- Well that’s a loaded question because teaching is a big part of my life right now, I personally struggle, I come from an academic family, so, in part, being a photographer was a rebellion from academia and the need to feel directly engaged and experiencing what was happening rather than reading or talking about what was happening. So that’s my background and I retained some of that, even though I do believe that teaching is rewarding and meaningful, I also psychologically struggle with it as an act, a passive act, of not doing and instead telling others what to do, and I often encounter myself telling somebody to do something that I know myself I should be doing. So, I personally struggle with that. I guess, I know people who want to be and fully embrace teaching, and I think that’s terrific cause I think teaching is an honorable and meaningful profession, but I’ve always come at it from the other side.

- How did you decide to transition from teaching at ICP to teaching at The New School? 

- Well I certainly feel very qualified to teach at the new school, or any other college or university within the NY area, I do feel that life and the opportunities that life bring you is often personal: somebody that I know offered me the position, and I say that because I could be sending out a resume to hundreds of universities and, not that I’m not qualified, but I just probably wouldn’t hear back from them. So I just feel like many things in life are like that

- What do you think is one of the most important factors/what’s the most important factor about a photograph?

- Well for me, because I think that means different things for many different people, I’m most interested in the historical element of a photograph. I’m interested in a photograph’s ability to freeze a single moment in time and then how that image changes as time itself passes. So we’re sitting here in this room and we have a photograph of a hog-tied black prisoner in Georgia in the 1930’s–what’s that mean now that we look back on that image almost 90 years later? And I’m interested in that conversation. So, for me, thinking as I photograph about what will be meaningful 90 years from now, and why–is why I photograph.

- How do you think society’s views, interpretations, and feelings towards photos have changed within the digital era?

- So the digital era–we’re living in a very confusing era right now, because never have there been so many images produced, never have there been so many images seen, never has the ability to create imagery been so democratized, basically everybody has their phone in their pocket and is using it. So, on the one hand: that’s amazing, it’s a gigantic explosion of photography and the photographic process. But on the other hand, we’re so bombarded, with so many images, all the time, that it’s difficult to make sense of it. This also plays out economically because, what the internet did–on the one hand it’s amazing that somebody 7000 miles away can click a button and be exposed to a story that you’re working on, but on the other hand the internet has largely been an excuse by employers to devalue photography for their own profit. So, there’s no money behind it, it’s basically destroyed the ability to actually make a living as a photographer, while it’s increased everybody’s ability to participate in photography. So, on the one hand I’m happy that everybody is participating in photography, in the other hand, as somebody with an invested interest in the economic ability to survive as a photographer, I’m unhappy.

- What do you like to photograph?

- History.

- Does where you live influence your photography/what you photograph?

- It does. I mean, it’s hard to complain about living in New York because there’s 8 million people here, 10 million people here, anything you want to find, you can find in New York. Right now, I’ve been struggling with spending so much time in New York because New York is obviously not America. New York is New York. For me personally, I feel that the story is really about what is happening in America. And so, I am not as motivated visually as I should be by where I live.

- Why do you like to shoot on your iPhone?

- The phone, for me, is just fun. It’s similar to returning to that idea of music and having passion for something that you’re not specifically engaged with. I think that as a photographer, as somebody who tries to make a living through their photography, having a venue that you don’t necessarily take seriously–I’m talking about personally, I know people who do very serious work on their iPhones, and take it very seriously, and I’m fine with that, but for me personally–it’s almost like a kind of way of taking notes, scribbling, and maybe a drawing, before you put oil paints on. I find that I sometimes return to the pure innocence and joy of what photography was before you felt you needed to make a picture that you could sell, for instance–that it’s just photography for its own sake, so I enjoy that. Maybe sometimes I think ‘that’s the goal for all your photography, regardless of what camera you’re using.’

- What are your thoughts on Instagram?

- Umm, the same as that. It’s fine as a place to just share without too much thought–I’m kind of getting a little bored with it, to be honest. I don’t know enough to compare it, I’m not on Flickr, I’m not on Snapchat, I have deep reservations about social media, I think that there’s some really harmful effects that it’s having. But Instagram I actually appreciate because it’s simply about photography and you can just scroll through and look at people pictures, and I like that. But, it’s becoming–I don’t know, maybe in my mind–more and more about individual branding that happens say on a Facebook page, that I think is harmful to society, discourse in sense of self.

- Is there a specific setting that you consider best for viewing photography?

- I LOVE PRINTED VERSIONS. I love the photobook, first and foremost, as a completed project, edited and sequenced by an individual, but I also love newspapers and magazines. I love holding things in my hand, flipping to the pages ahead, turning back, looking at the relationship of the pictures that preceded it, come after it: I personally lose that experience by viewing photography on a computer.

- Where do you find your inspiration/what inspires you?

 - Writers inspire me. Writers. I’m a writer ‘wannabe’. Journalism, long-form journalism inspires me. So I’ll read a book, about a subject, and as I’m reading I’m visualizing–especially if it’s a talented writer–the pictures that go with the story. That’s where I find my inspiration.

- What project of yours would you consider your favorite to have worked on/the one you most enjoyed working on?

- I think I most enjoyed being in South Africa for Mandela’s election. I mean that was just so clearly important, historical, and beautiful in every way. Even 20 years later, as we realize that we were sold a false bill of goods, in terms of people’s lives and how they changed in South Africa, just being there on the day that he became president was just a great example of where a camera can take you.

- Is this project also the one you’re most proud of? If not, which one and why? 

- Yeah, I struggle with pride. I mean, I’m not trying to, I’m really not trying to present a profile of modesty or false modesty, I just have a kind of weird inability to value my own work in a way that it deserves.  But, I’m much more interested in what remains for me to go do, rather than what I’ve already done.

- What is your most inspirational/influential work to your audience? Which of your works, do you think, has cause change/made people realize something?

- Well I think that even though I failed miserably at getting the work out there in an organized and coherent form–and never did a book on it–I think the pictures from the prison project had some effect on people looking at them, in some way.

- How did you feel in those situations? How did you feel in those prisons, taking those photographs?

- Horrible.

- Your least favorite project?  

- *laughs* every freaking day*laughs*. I don’t know, I mean, I think that while I admire photographers who are just working photographers who go out and do the daily assignment, and I admire their ability to put their best foot forward, always come away with a picture, no matter the circumstances, and work for a living–I’m just too much of a narcissist to really put my heart in things that don’t interest me. So when I really was doing assignment photography–maybe I’m just too spoiled, I don’t know– I just don´t. If my hearts not in it–sure I’m still trying to get the best picture, of course, who wouldn’t? –I just have this overwhelming sense that I’m wasting my time.

- Do you think you have a process, a photographic process? Or does it vary/change for each project?

- I think process is something that’s always evolving, and not necessarily in a straight line. I think it zigzags, it’s like progress itself, you get a weird idea and your head, you go off on a tangent for a couple of months–it’s just something that is changing based on so many things: where you’re at in your life. Like right now for instance, I have limited time, time is a big struggle, so I really have no desire to go look for just nice pictures. I’m only interested in working on something that I can really sink time into and come away with something like a body of work because just… But that’s just after a year of running around and photographing anything that struck my fancy, so I think that: it’s always changing.

- I mean, if I’m a student who struggles with time in NYC, I can’t imagine how, you, as a photographer, must struggle with it.
- Well so much about being a photographer is really about freeing your time in order to photograph, and I don’t mean photographing Fridays from 2-6, I mean photograph all the time.  And who can live like that? Well the young. But I feel that the older I get, and the more responsibilities I have, the less free my life is to just photograph.

- What about one photographer that stands out/has been an influence?

- There’s dozens of photographers that I really… I love the work of Arlene Gottfried. I think (Eu)Gene Richards is probably the most–I mean personally, the photographer you always dreamed or wished you were or could be, even though, I’m not–I’m not going to do that work–but I just love his photography. Diana Arbus was onto something for sure. Garry Winogrand, is definitely my favorite street photographer.

- Are you still shooting film ever?

- Yes! I love film…

Q- What about it?

- Well I don’t understand digital black & white. I don’t get it. I’m sure there’s technical people out there who do get it, and can manage to make their B&W digital pictures…

 …Digital color is fine, I think it very easily mimics most slide films, with the exception of color chrome. But digital black & white feels plastic to me, and I know that there is applications to return the grain, but as somebody who doesn’t really know what they’re doing on the computer in that way, I can’t/I haven’t found a way to make it look like I want it to look–which is to feel the film. And it’s strange that it doesn’t bother me in color, where I don’t feel the film in a color photograph in the same way that I do feel in a black & white photograph. It’s not like I see black & white photos and I **fake gags** It’s not like that. It’s just more that when I’m doing it, and I see something that I took in black & white or converted to black & white, it feels plastic to me. What is that? I don’t know what that is…

- Do you prefer shooting black & white or color? Why? And what are your reasons for photographing in both mediums?

- It’s not about preferring one over the other, they’re different. I like both. I think black & white, personally, feels a little overused. To me, I think it’s more challenging and interesting to work out your issues in color. But that doesn’t apply universally across the board. I see a lot of black and white photography that I think is only black & white because it’s an easy way to create ambiance and mood, but it’s also kind of a cop-out, I feel. But that’s not always the case, this is my opinion

So what’s the difference? Black & white is so much about the content of the image, and color brings in more aesthetic considerations. SO, it’s possible for example to make a color image that’s really about color, and what you’re actually looking at, the narrative, the content within the frame, is of diminished importance. I think it’s interesting that I like color photography but that aspect of it I’m not interested in, because I’m very much about the narrative within the photo–that’s what I’m drawn too. So color for its own sake, doesn’t particularly interest me, with a few exceptions. But there is something about color–I mean we tend to look at/associate a certain historical period of time with, not just black & white or color, but the kind of color, you know? 70’s has its own look, the 30’s is black & white, WWII was a black & white war but Vietnam is a color war **laughs** but we’re talking about a period that is very close together. Korea is a black & white war, in terms of the way it was photographed and how the images are viewed. So, I’m interested in the contemporary here and now, more than in referencing a visual queue from the past.

- So your latest book is in black & white. How did you reach that decision?

- I reached that decision because the reason for me to do that book was trying to kind of escape the daily grind I call ‘feeding the beast of agency stock photography’, where you’re just going out and photographing things with the idea of selling them for publications or textbooks over time, and I really wanted to return to the dark room actually, as a form of therapy, because I think that the black & white dark room process can be extremely therapeutic. So I, thought of that idea as something that I could be even returning to the fundamentals–the purest roots of the craft, and so that’s why I choose black & white. But halfway through it I certainly felt like I should have been doing it in color. **laughs** Too late now. I think it should have been in color because it would have opened up a different market to the work. That it being in black & whit is limiting it.

- How hast it been selling in comparison to your previous book?

- Well the previous book (Iraq soldier’s funerals), that work was so specific to one thing. But the prison work is certainly more–when I was doing that work, nobody gave a rat’s ass about it, for sure. And I think that since then, there’s been a much greater political discussion and political awareness of the consequences of mass incarceration. It’s even the phrase ‘mass incarceration’ or ‘the prison industrial complex’, were phrases that didn’t even really exist, certainly in mainstream conversation when I was doing the work: in part, because it was being built as I was doing it. But now-I mean clearly we’ve taken a step backwards, a fundamental step backwards, which I think is temporary.

- So you collaborated with your brother on this book. What’s it like to work with family? Good, bad, different? Is it your first time working with him?

 - It is my first time. I think we were working on the same issues for years and years and years, for 20 years, 25 years. Why? I don’t know. Never consciously. Never talked about it. So it was almost like a ‘coming home’ process to collaborate. And I think it went super well. It was fairly easy–there’s something about working with family that there is an inherent trust that perhaps you don’t have with somebody that you’re collaborating with or you just met, even if things get rough or you get annoyed with each other, you’re still going to be brothers. So, it was good to actually kind of come together, because we’re coming at it from very different angles, to return to those mixed feelings that I have about academia, personal feelings, so he’s definitely an academic, and part of this process for me was learning the real value in that, of not just talking shit, but actually know what you’re talking about–to have studied it, to be conscious of all the source material out there, to have read it, to know the fundamental ideas and controversy’s behind, say, a historical site–rather than what you just read on Wikipedia. Not to say I’m just reading on Wikipedia, but I certainly am not a historian you know? I’m not.

- So he did all the writing in the book? 

- No, he is an editor at a historical magazine, so he got eight historians to write short essays. But he definitely edited them and he solicited–I mean nobody has been paid… you know? So all of this was a labor of love from these people, or generosity.

- Who came up with the idea, not just about working together but about making the book?

- Well the book was my idea, and working together was also my idea, but he greatly contributed. I think I was working on the book for 6 years, 6 years of travelling before, and he was/is just very busy–he was doing a different book, an earlier book that he was working on, and he didn’t have time. And then, when he did have time, and he embraced it, he did a lot very quickly. So, the organization of the book, the title of the book, the historical essays, are all his contribution.

- Why are you currently not doing photography? And why is it frustrating you?

- Well I’m always going to be photographing, I’m just currently, as in right now, I think I’m teaching a lot right now. So, again I return to that: the creative process of photography is a lot about freeing your life. So, I mean, you don’t have any control if some guy, some scumbag decides to kill 8 people on a Tuesday, and you feel that that’s something that you want to go engage with, you have to be free, you can’t say ‘Oh, can you do that on a Thursday? Cause Tuesday I’m teaching.’ So my schedule right now is pretty full, so I’m not doing as much photography as I want. I also need to return to the idea that I also need to feel that the story, that interests me the most, is in the American horror land, and the fundamental reasons for embracing Trump and Trumpism is not going to be found in New York, and is not true to what’s happening here in New York, or for that matter really any major urban center. I feel like it’s a rural or post-industrial town story. It’s hard to get away for two days, and get yourself in the headspace that you need to have.

- What was it like to photograph the events of 9/11? Or having been out on the street, helping people through the smoke?

- Yeah, it was horrible and witness and be there, and I think it’s an example of how I use the camera when I’m really upset, the camera is a form of therapy. I remember crying on the subway home, that day, when I was downtown all day and the took the subway back here, and then getting my camera geared together and going out–the next eight days I just photographed, straight, all day, and I was working through something that was personal. Yeah. So for me, the camera was therapeutic.

- Did you ever share that work?

 - Yeah, somewhere.

I remember when it happened, I was living in NJ at the time, and was completely convinced that all of Manhattan was gone; that 9/11 meant no more NYC. I wanted to go look at the skyline so bad because I imagined it was all gone for some reason.

- I mean it’s interesting that it’s really the exact opposite, right? I mean I remember so clearly the morning of 9/11 being six blocks north and people were sipping their Cappuccino–and I’m not trying to lay fault on the people drinking the coffee, it’s just a natural human condition. But you could have gone to midtown and it’s like nothing ever happened, or the further uptown you go, and that’s one of the amazing things about New York–it’s something huge, something dramatic could be happening around the corner, but isn’t affecting you right there. So New York, you know, was fully functioning. If you weren’t downtown, it would have actually been plausible to say that nothing ever really happened. I mean you smelt the smoke up to what? To 14th street? But after that? No.

Bertrand Piccard for Europa Press (2016)

- Now that Solar Impulse’s trip around the world has slowly reached its conclusion, all that is left is the final voyage culminating in United Emirates this summer. What are some of your reflections, both personal and as a representative of your company, now that the trip has reached its final stages?

 - Well first, we should never tempt faith. There is still about 10% of around-the-world to do, it’s serious flights. Each flight of an experimental airplane, flying on solar power, is something new, it’s challenging. So we really have to focus fully on the mission to Abu Dhabi, but this project is for me, since the moment I initiated it, a platform, to speak about clean technologies and renewable energy. So of course, at the end I will have a platform that is really credible, that people believe in, and I will continue to use it, in order to bring together, all the actors of the clean technology industry, organizations, NGOs, foundations, associations, in order to speak with one voice, for the clean tech world: and advise governments, and be much more efficient in the way that we can implement these technologies in different countries.

- As a personal view, do you think you’ve reached your goal so far through the trip, of promoting this—

 - Well until now, it’s been a fantastic success. It’s true, you know a few years ago, nobody would have bet one penny on this flight around the world in this solar airplane. Except some partners, who supported us from the beginning, like Schindler, ABB, Solvay, Covestro, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, companies like this, who are out of the world of aviation, they did not know it was impossible, so they accepted to help us, you know?

 And maybe, maybe one moment in the lasts weeks that showed that we’re getting closer to this goal: is when I was flying from Hawaii to San Francisco, over the Pacific Ocean, and I could speak live from the cockpit of the plane, by satellite, with the United Nation’s General Assembly, where one of 175 heads of state were signing the pro-climate agreement, and I was telling them “you are not only protecting the environment, you are launching the clean technology revolution.” And this is important because, this is what is going to stimulate growth, make profits, create jobs, because all these new clean technologies are what the world needs, for a healthier planet.

- So you believe you’ve accomplished the promotion of sustainable energy, instead of using traditional fuels, to power an airplane for example?

- Yes, knowing that it’s the beginning. When the Wright Brothers were flying, in 1903, it was the beginning, with a single-seater, only good weather, and very slow. And 66 years later there were two men on the moon… So we start a new cycle, having no fuel, but it’s still a slow airplane, only one person, only good weather, and we will see how the evolution will happen. But I bet that in ten years’ time, even if airplanes will not be fully solar powered, at least they will be electric airplanes, transporting 50 people in total, no fuel—only electric, plugged on the grid when before take-off, but it can be charged with solar or wind energies, especially in Spain, because you guys are pioneers in for that in Spain. And these airplanes can land with no pollution and no noise, so they can land closer to cities, which is an advantage for everybody.

- So you think beyond the feet of travelling around the globe without using a drop of gasoline yourself, that this technology could be competitive in the commercial market in the near future?

- It will, it will for sure. Absolutely, because energy efficiency is a way to use less money, for fuel, for losses in the engine, you know? When you fly with a thermal engine, half of your gasoline, and sometimes 70% of your gasoline is lost because of the inefficiency of the system. With electric systems, you lose almost nothing. We have 97% efficiency in our engines, we lose 3%. So it’s obvious that the future of the world will be electric. And the one who understands it, will make profit in the industry, and the one who doesn’t understand it, will resist and will disappear: like Kodak with digital pictures. But already now, we see that energy efficiency comes with commercial advantage. Schindler, the elevator company, they are selling more elevators than their competitions, only because their elevators and escalators are more energy efficient. It costs less every year, to operate them. You see, this is the credibility and the vision of Solar Impulse: and we’ve been working together with Schindler, to have lighter materials, more energy efficiency, for us and for them. So it’s a real partnership.

- Was there ever a moment during the flight where you experienced a moment of risk or complication? I can imagine that the passage through the Pacific Ocean might have not been very easy, considering some of the wind levels in that area.

- The pacific, curiously enough, was quite easy in terms of weather. But we had the technical problems with the batteries, we had overheating with the batteries. So this is why we were stuck in Hawaii and we had to replace the batteries. The Atlantic flight, was a more challenging flight in terms of weather. The weatherman told me “If you look at the map of the Atlantic you will hardly believe you made it through…” Because really there were corridors of sunshine between two big barriers or fronts of bad weather, and I had to be guided through these corridors, but it worked very well. But there were also very turbulent moments, it was rock and roll sometimes. Close to the Azores Islands, I really had to fight to keep the airplane stable because it’s a light airplane, it’s very big, so its sensitive to turbulence…

- Were you frightened, did you think you were at risk? 

- No, it’s not moments where you’re frightened, its moments you are really focused and concentrated. You have to stay calm, and you have to do what you have learned. This is why we were trained, Andre Borscheberg and I, we were really trained to fly, one after the other, in this single-seated cockpit, to bail-out if we need to bail-out, also so that the parachutes survive in the sea, but before bailing-out: learn to control the plane. *laughs*  

When I fly, Andre takes a regular airplane to go to the destination. When he flies, I take the regular airplane, so there’s only one person in the plane at the same time, we have the mission control center in Monaco, where we have mission engineers, where we have the people from Altran–Altran is a French company who develop all of the software we use, for the program, and the simulation of trajectories and energy. So they really help a lot, and there is a hot-mic via satellite, so each time I speak, and they listen to what I say: so I’m really never alone.

- So you never feel lonely?

- No, and there is another thing that is also really nice, we have cameras on board: in the cockpit and on the wings, and it’s a live streaming. So everybody in the public, can go on SolarImpulse.com and they can watch everything: it’s very transparent, we show everything. Except privacy mode for the toilet ha-ha!

- That’s what I was going to ask you next: how do you eat, how do you bathe, how do you dispose of bodily fluids, when do you sleep?

- It’s a…it’s a little house.

- A little house?

- It’s a little house, very small, but you have everything. You can recline the seat, to be fully flat, and you can sleep, little naps of 20 minutes, you have the toilets on board, you can warm up your food, brush your teeth, change your clothes, you wash yourself with wet-wipes, and you have the most beautiful view in the world. When you’re on the toilets, you don’t need to pull the curtains, there is no neighbors. *laughs*

- How do you mentally prepare yourself before every take-off? Are there any challenges, or someway to convince yourself to do it, an eagerness?

- I just think about the last 17 years that I’ve dreamed of it. And I don’t need to convince myself to go, you know it’s almost an addiction, to fly with this plane. Because, its magic. I have the impression to jump into a movie of science fiction. You look at the sun, you look at your propellers on both sides, they turn, there is no fuel, there is no noise. And you continue to fly across oceans, you fly around the world, and its nuts. A future thing; but it’s today, it happens today, and each time I have to remember “yea I’m in today’s world. This isn’t the future.” Technologies now make it possible to do it.

- And while you’re flying, do you reflect on the essence of the experience on itself? What are some of the thoughts that go through your head while you’re flying looking down at the ocean?

- There are several things. One, you have to fly the plane, so you have to focus, there’s concentration. Then there is also the wonder, when you look outside, and you see the ocean, and you think “I am doing the first, ever flight of a solar airplane, across the Atlantic.” And everybody has already tried to go through the Atlantic with balloons, airships, steam boats, airplanes, the blue ribbon race, the titanic, and now, it’s the turn of a solar-powered airplane, for the first time. So this is wonderful. And the other thing is the message that I want to spread, so there are a lot of interviews. I talked with the vice president of the European Commission; in charge of energy, with Ban Ki-Moon; secretary general of the UN, I spoke with Richard Branson about what he is doing for making aviation cleaner. So all these moments of communication are really the core of this project–this is why it happens. Just fly records, it’s fun, but it’s useless. What I want to do is really something useful.

- What might be some of the goals left to achieve in terms of aviation and of reaching somewhere in the world?

 - If you think in term of aviation, I believe that the next step will be, sub-orbital transport: where you can take off and go to the edge of space, for example in Europe, and then you shut down the motor, and you fly parabolic, and you land in Australia, 45 minutes later. This will be something, a little bit like what Virgin Galactic is trying to do for tourists, but I think it will be possible to fly for a very long distance, and you save a lot of fuel, and a lot of pollution.

 Another thing will be of course, electric airplanes for short-haul, sub-orbital will be for very long-haul, short-haul will be electric. The airplanes will be plugged on the grid, can be solar, can be wind, and they charge the batteries on the ground, and then they fly, and this is a way to bring airplanes closer to cities, silent landings and take offs, no pollution, so it’s an advantage. But more than aviation, we need progress today, in the implementation of clean technologies, because when we speak of pollution, and when we speak of climate change, it is not so much our lifestyle that is the reason for the cause of climate change, it’s the of technologies that we still use. We’re still using combustion engines, incandescent light-bulbs, badly insulated houses, old grids of distribution, old heating and cooling systems, this is causing 50% of the CO2 emissions in the world. So my goal is really now to contribute, especially with the International Committee for Clean Technologies that I have launched during the Atlantic flight ah, I wanted to make a meditative and attractive announcement of it. With this committee we want to bring together all the actors of the clean technologies, in order to be able to advise governments on how to use these technologies and how to really reduce CO2 emissions, while creating jobs and making profit.

 You know at the end of the day, you can believe in climate change or not, but even if you are not ecological, you can be logical. And logical is to go for clean technologies because its more profitable. It brings advantages every day, and if, by the way, protects the environment, its good also, but it is a new industrial market.

- So I can imagine that you will continue to pioneer projects and plans, beyond Solar Impulse, in the near future?

 - Now I really want to continue to work in the line of the platform that I have created with Solar Impulse in favor of clean technologies. But there is one idea also in that line–and this is mainly developed by Andre Borscheberg who is our engineer too–it’s atmospheric satellites. So it’s like a Solar Impulse 3, with no pilot, remote controlled, flying for months or years in the high atmosphere, powered by solar energy, and it can replace antennas for GSM, Wi-Fi, telecommunications, things like that. It can be very very useful and cheaper than satellites for developing countries.