When photographer Wayne Lawrence moved to New York, it was his St. Kitts upbringing that drew him to the waters of the Bronx’s notorious Orchard Beach; but it was the vibrant people he discovered there that had him return summer after summer. Just like the late Gordon Parks, Lawrence uses his camera ‘like a weapon’, drawing attention to those communities forgotten or prejudiced in the media. The product of a conversation, an interaction, Lawrence’s series and book, Orchard Beach: The Bronx Riviera dispels the negative stereotype its subjects have forged, through highlighting the experiences we share as humans. The captivating result of both love and loss, we talk to Lawrence about his six-year project.
Wayne Lawrence / INSTITUTE
Can you explain a little about the process of creating Orchard Beach?
I would just go to the beach and try to make connections and talk to people. Every photograph is the result of a conversation.
How did you choose the people to be in your photographs?
A big part of it is by studying body language, I would try to be open to any experience that would come my way. I didn’t go with any preconceived notions of what picture I was trying to get, I would just try to connect with people and see what happened.
Were most people happy to oblige?
Most people yes, there were some people you could just tell, no matter how many times you ask – you’ll never get their photograph. But for the most part, I think maybe seventy to eighty per cent were happy with it.
Have many of the people who feature in the series seen it themselves?
A lot of them have seen it, over the years I would usually email the photographs to people. Everybody who’s in the book has seen their photograph – if their email address still works.
With Orchard Beach and a lot of your other work, you draw attention to communities who suffer discrimination – why do you feel it is important to do this?
There needs to be as many positive images of communities of colour and working-class communities as possible, because they’re almost non-existent… I choose to do this work because these are the communities I identify with; I grew up like most of the people who I photograph, so it just feels natural.
You’ve cited photographer Gordon Parks as an inspiration – do you feel the discrimination he documented is as rife now as it was in the mid-Twentieth Century when he was taking pictures?
No I don’t think so, but I think his approach is what’s inspiring – to use his camera as a weapon. Obviously it’s not like it was in the Seventies, we still have some issues, but for me it’s all about the positives. My aim when I step outside is to create these images that are positive, that are dignified portraits of the people that I meet. All our experiences are different, so it’s hard for me to say exactly what people are going through, but I just approach them as human beings, because we are connected and deserving of respect, and that’s what I want to portray in my work.
Wayne Lawrence / INSTITUTE
Do you feel you owe it to your subjects to show them in a dignified manner?
Yeah it’s just who I am, this is how I would like to be portrayed… I just feel like I want to contribute something to humanity, I want to try to contribute something to humanity. I’ve shot fashion pictures, I’ve shot other types of pictures and it just doesn’t do anything for me. I look at my people and I want them to feel the love that I experienced when I met them and we had that conversation. That to me is just as important as the picture itself – the engagement with the subjects and the energy.
What message do you hope to instil in the viewer from this series?
That people are people, no matter where you go. We are all the same, we are connected and we all want to live good lives, and at least try to leave this world a better place for our children and grandchildren. That is my message, it’s very basic, it’s very straight-forward, I just want to do what I do – what I’m inspired to do.
You spent six years on this project, why so long?
It took six years just because it took me that long to find my voice, and finding my voice meant asking myself some serious questions: What was I really trying to say with the work? Could I just go in and get fifteen good pictures and call it a day? Or was I going to be as honest and true to the story as possible? Every year when you think it’s almost there, you get a new picture or new experience that challenges you, and shows you you’re not there yet. So you go back every year to find the missing pieces to make it work, and it took a really long time. I made a lot of mistakes, a lot of times you shoot portraits and you think you have something there, and it’s not there. You didn’t really make that connection. Even though I’ve shot hundreds of people, the percentage of images that actually worked was very low. I think it really started coming together four years into the project – around the time of the recession, more families started coming to the beach, around 2008 – so that’s when most of my family pictures start coming into the series. That was the most important part of this body of work, to just shoot individuals is one thing, but once you start showing the family element you start feeling more of a community.
Wayne Lawrence / INSTITUTE
How did you know when it was finished?
I could have shot this story forever, but at a certain point you have to say, ‘Do I have enough here to make a work?’ I still have some disappointments with it, because I had actual relationships with the subjects and some didn’t make it into the body of work because their portraits weren’t as strong. So that’s one downside, but overall I think I did it justice.
What have you learnt from this project?
I’ve learnt so much it’s hard to say everything, some of it is unspoken. It deepened my love for people. I’ve definitely grown with this project, a big part of it for me was the healing, for a long time I was scarred with my brother’s passing, the connections that I made at Orchard Beach and being able to walk by the water really helped me with the grieving process.
What are you currently working on?
I’m working on a series of portraits of African-American Orthodox Jews in New York, and I’m also thinking about going to the Dominican Republic because of the situation there for Haitian workers.
There are two types of people in the world. Specialists and multidisciplinary individuals. That’s not to say a specialist can’t be multidisciplinary at all, or vice versa. But what’s intriguing about Bailey Bass is her positioning at the intersection of the Venn diagram, which we get a glimpse of in our conversation. She’s taken on many roles not only as an actress, but also in her personal life, connecting ideas across fields like psychology, a resurgence of hobbies, and writing.
In ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’, Bailey’s character, Tsireya, continues to serve as an emotional anchor within Pandora, embodying empathy, resilience, and quiet strength amid growing chaos. Through her, the film explores how tenderness can coexist with ferocity, and how choosing empathy in moments of destruction becomes a form of resistance in itself. All of which Bailey parallels in her personal life.
In between bouts of laughter and a charming zest for life, Bailey Bass speaks to Schön! about her metrics for success, a newly set up career wall, and of course, ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’.
Congratulations on the release of ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’. You’re playing the very graceful yet strong Tsireya. When joining the ‘Avatar” world, what excited you?
I didn’t know what was going on. It was my first movie. This is my new normal, and I think I was just excited to work. I’ve been auditioning since I was five. I booked it when I was twelve – that’s a long time before you get to live out your dream. I had really low expectations, but I’m just so excited to be a part of a franchise that’s been a part of my life for so long.
That’s insane. It’s a relatively short period of time to make it big, but when you’re 12, that’s half the life that you’ve been auditioning.
Oh my God, no, it’s such a long time. They say give Hollywood seven years, and I guess it’s true. It’s a short time in your life, but the rejection is really hard. I was modelling so much that I had filler — it didn’t hit me the way it hits me now, where I’m ready for the next role. I don’t have much to complain about when I’ve played really nuanced female leading characters I can actually be proud of.
It takes a lot of women ahead of me to have paved the path where I don’t feel objectified in my first roles, which I feel like was kind of a rite of passage that a lot of women had to go through for a long time in the industry. That doesn’t seem to be something we have to do anymore, even though there’s still much more to go. I’m grateful that a lot of the roles that I’ve played with Claudia and Tsireya have been so strong and empowering.
That’s so nice to hear, I’m glad that your experience has showed change in the industry.
Well, it’s still hard, I’m still a woman, but I’m just grateful for my character. I mean, there’s still a long way to go.
dress. Loulou de Saison
earrings. Agmes
opposite
dress. Stella McCartney
earrings. Saulé @ Yaya Pubicity
Of course, one little win at a time. When playing Tsireya, did you find yourself reaching areas that, in yourself, as Bailey, you maybe hadn’t explored before?
I didn’t know how to swim. It was three girls at the end of the audition process, and I remember I was paired with the boys, and that was a blessing in disguise for the swimming part because I was like, “I’m not gonna let them beat me. I’m gonna fake it till I make it.” I honestly thank that moment of being paired with a boy who clearly has been swimming his whole life, and I barely knew how to doggy paddle. I had to prove myself very quickly.
Kirk Krack, who is an amazing freediving instructor — he’s worked with Navy SEALs and Tom Cruise on ‘Mission Impossible’. He said at the end of filming, where I had a breath hold of six minutes and 30 seconds, and I was almost leading the chart when it came to swimming… He says, “You grew so much.” Because they wrote in their notes in the audition process, “she needs work, but has a lot of potential.”
That’s so funny. I tried holding my breath and could only do about 50 seconds.
That’s still a long time. I can still do a minute. I love it when gym bros are like, “let’s do a breath hold competition,” and I always beat them. That feels so good. Fuck their push-ups.
Are there any traits from Tsireya that you had in common, or traits that you would like to adopt from her?
I had a lot of similarities to Tsireya from [‘Avatar’] two and three. James Cameron (Jim), our director, and Margery Simkin, the casting director, is a badass. I love her. She’s a legend in the game, and she knew, even though my audition was shit, that the empathy was there. I always had that compassion and empathy for other people.
Growing up really low income — I’m first generation — the family I grew up with had that immigrant mindset of ‘we will make it through, this is better than where we came from’ and I’d be like, ‘well, this is still not great’ and they’d say, ‘but we can do it.’ I already had those qualities. 2025 was really hard being an American and being in the United States. I’ve definitely been hardened by it.
I’m really interested to see, as we’ve seen the chaos in ‘Fire and Ash’ and the chaos that I’ve experienced as Bailey in the world, what that’s going to mean for Tsireya’s empathy, because I’ve seen it in myself. I don’t think Jim and Margie are mind readers and can predict the future, but I think they knew I had enough goodness in me that if you start from that place, it’s easy to shape and add the trauma in afterwards, which I have enough of as well.
full look. Burberry
Oh dear, why are you giggling?
You have to laugh. There are actually studies that show that people who’ve experienced the most trauma are the funniest.
It’s like they say, if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry.
Exactly. It’s 2026, we’ve persevered! That’s why — what I talked about in the beginning — those little moments, it’s still not fair. It’s still frustrating, but I realised that you have to be a part of the system to change the system, and have compassion for yourself. I didn’t decide to be born in a brown female body, but what can I do to create the change I want to see? I know you know, but that’s a tough pill to swallow, and I swallow it every day. Being a part of the system and smiling and being nice helps me make much more change, which I know sometimes I just want to pop off the internal rage. I’m a New Yorker. I’m like, ‘someone shove me on the subway, this needs to come out.’
So now that ‘Avatar’ has wrapped, what stayed with you the most? Was it the character, the people, maybe a specific moment on set?
I forget. Actually, I’m going to show you — I created a career wall in my new apartment. It’s still in the making. This is from ‘Interview With the Vampire’ — it’s not done, I still need them to send stuff from ‘Fire and Ash’. Seeing this every day has actually made me remember all that I’ve achieved because it’s really easy to think, ‘I have four more semesters of school before I can even apply to grad schools,’ or ‘I really want to produce this project, and it still has so much more to go.’ But it’s like, look how far you’ve come.
Honestly, I wish I could say what stuck with me was that you have to keep going, that bravery is really important. The issue with me is that, because I’m such a perfectionist, it doesn’t stay with me. So having those reminders, a good therapist, journaling, and having really good friends that tell you you’re doing great. What makes me great at my job is that I keep striving to be better. And yes, that’s great, but I am glad that I made this wall because it reminds me of how far I’ve come. I’ve been working since I was two.
That’s unbelievable, by the way.
Yeah, I go to Columbia University to study psychology, and going back to school has helped me feel like a kid because I had to grow up so fast. I’ve been working with adults, even on ‘Avatar,’ I was the only teen girl, and Trinity was seven, so that was isolating. There were gaps in my childhood, so I’m grateful for — as much as I’m still working, still love being in entertainment — having those moments of normalcy because I do feel like I’ve played as an actor more than I’ve played as a kid.
dress. Angelina Poppy @ REP Agency
earrings. Agmes
rings. Swarovski
opposite
dress. Loulou de Saison
earrings. Agmes
You’ve also balanced growing up, working, and evolving creatively all at once. How do you protect your sense of self outside of acting and work?
I have really good friends and a community. I’m gonna start knitting, having hobbies that have nothing to do with work, because as a child, my hobby became my job. So, as I’m entering my adulthood, finding things that I don’t want to make a career out of, something that’s genuinely just fun for me. I love reading, I read every day, that’s really important to me and having some type of routine, because [work] is freelance and every day does look different. Having routine things that I don’t get paid for is really important because it reminds me that my self-worth is in me just being me. But it’s definitely not easy.
I have jobs outside acting — I work as a research assistant and comms person for a nonprofit on campus, I grant write for half the story, but being able to use different parts of my brain and also not boxing myself in. I know I’ve talked about school so much, but that’s reminding myself I’m not linear. I’m not just an actress, even though that’s filled so much of my life; I am so much more than this one thing, and I love that we live in an era where people can have multiple jobs and be multifaceted, and that is celebrated.
With multifaceted freelancing, ‘Avatar’ being such a huge film, and working since you were two, what does success mean to you now? Has it changed at all within your life?
I check in with ‘am I happy?’ I’ve reached a point in my career where there are so many people on the email chain, and I have not seen all of them in person, but they’re all working really hard to achieve a mutual goal. But that goal in education is not going to be the same in acting. Growing up as a kid actor, you want your team to be a part of every aspect of your life. I’ve had to realise my manager’s not necessarily gonna care if I get an A on this essay, and that is okay. So, remembering that I’m leading the ship and that success stems from ‘Am I happy?’
That’s tough when so much of my success has been being an A student in school and working on set, being a really good friend, daughter and sibling, and being able to get everything done on time — that is what success meant to me. It honestly slipped me into such a deep depression when I realised as an adult, I have to check in on myself now, I’m not a kid anymore. That transition, while also being in the limelight, and wanting to be really good at my job, was not easy. Going back to those pillars of, ‘Am I happy? Did I read today? Did I go outside today? Did I do things that fill my cup?’
dress. Loulou de Saison
earrings. Agmes
I love that happiness is your priority. With ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ press tour being your first time out of the country, and now fresh off the ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ tour, which place have you loved the most, and are there any places you’ve yet to tick off the bucket list?
I went to Canada for like three hours because we crossed the border a couple of weeks before the press tour. That doesn’t really count, we went go-karting in Niagara Falls, and they didn’t even stamp my passport. Even being Belarusian and never being to Belarus — I speak Russian, I am so ingrained in the culture, so people think I’m from there when I speak about it. I’m grateful that I grew up in Gravesend, Brooklyn, immersed in so many cultures.
I went to Malta for the Malta Film Festival. It’s such a special country, and I feel like it needs to be highlighted so much more. They’ve done so much for the film industry. I went to the tanks there because they knew I worked on ‘Avatar’, so we were geeking out about the tech. Malta will always have a special place in my heart. The people are so amazing.
Italy is one of my favourite places. Going to Milan for the ‘Fire and Ash’ press tour was amazing. I really want to go to Iceland, to go hiking in Argentina for a week. I’m an adventure seeker, and I want to go somewhere that’s exciting. Alaska is on my list for this year, and Thailand for a girls’ trip. I went skydiving for my 18th birthday in Arizona. I want to do the crazy stuff that. I ate a cockroach on set when I was eight. Been there, done that.
Did it taste okay?
It tastes spicy and crispy. No, it wasn’t a cockroach, it was a cricket. It builds a great personality.
Looking ahead, are there any new projects in the pipeline? Any genres, roles, or stories that you want to get into? What’s next for Bailey?
I really hope we make more ‘Avatars’. I love that I’ve continued being in this weird character actor space. I have said for years that I want to be in the ‘Game of Thrones’ franchise, and the fans want it too. Every time she speaks Russian, they’re like, ‘why does it sound Targaryen?’ It’s because I grew up in America and my accent isn’t great.
I want to continue doing things that feel really epic. Give me character work, and I just shine. I think it’s because I feel so removed from myself, but I also see the sensitivity in the characters. I am excited to eventually go to grad school and continue doing psych research. I’m fascinated by studying how much work you have to put in to be great. It’s quite niche, but the people I’ve worked with say ‘research is me search,’ so continuing to not put myself in a box and seeing where it goes.
But honestly, my grandma asks, ‘what are your dreams for months from now?’ I kind of have them, but I could get a call and be in a different country, which I will be at the end of this month, which is what happens. It’s two weeks at a time. I’m here for the vibes, and the vibes have been great.
Boxing offered Anne ‘Gowtu’ van Lingen a way to find her voice after a childhood where she at times felt overlooked, left navigating a chaotic environment without a safety net. The new short documentary titled ‘GOWTU’ follows this transition from a girl lost in the noise to a woman who discovered her strength through the rhythmic discipline of the sport. It reveals how a physical outlet provides a primary tool for confronting the past and finding a way to speak up.
“I still remember the moment when boxing turned into something more than just a sport. I wasn’t in a good place mentally and suddenly everything from my past that I had suppressed or never processed came back,” confesses Gowtu in the film. “And I noticed that boxing really became an outlet for me to regulate my emotions.”
Gowtu is a familiar face in Amsterdam’s boxing scene and regularly gives training sessions at Simson Gym. She recently appeared in the ring at the Johnny Mosterd Memorial at Club Panama.
Maxim Etty and Jesse Plum, two self-taught directors based in Amsterdam, collaborated to bring this narrative to the screen. Etty utilises a background in illustration and commercial film to pull clarity out of visual chaos, giving the project a raw yet polished finish. Plum focuses on the authentic connection between people and their environment. Their combined efforts captured the intimate details of Gowtu’s life and her current dedication to supporting others.
Reports from Dutch NGO Injebol show that one in four young adults struggle with mental health due to rising rates of anxiety and depression. Gowtu now spends her time training youth who carry their own heavy histories, showing them that the gym is a place where they can finally belong. “Sometimes you see kids struggle and not really know how to express it. I often recognise parts of myself with the kids I work with,” she explains.
The project supports initiatives that contribute to raising awareness of mental health among young people. Documenting Gowtu’s transition into a mentor allows the filmmakers to show that the weight of a difficult past can be transformed into motivation.
Viewers can find the documentary online, where it acts as a call to action for anyone feeling isolated by their circumstances. Like many others, Gowtu’s story proves that the journey towards healing often starts with a single step into the light, reminding us that resilience is built through discipline and the support of a group that understands the struggle. For those who feel they need someone to talk to, the film points directly to the resources provided by Injebol.
Up a winding road from Park City, Utah’s Main St, The Hellp lit up Deer Valley Resort’s Chute Eleven bar with an electric DJ set surrounded by snowy slopes as the city celebrated the Sundance Film Festival below. An indie electronic duo out of LA, The Hellp (Chandler Lucy and Noah Dillon), has been on a major tear as of late, with their song “Here I Am” from their 2025 album “Riviera” going viral and regularly opening for 2hollis.
Lucy and Dillon commanded the room with a set of decks spinning tracks of theirs like “Caustic” from behind blackout sunglasses. Fans packed the champagne yurt’s après-ski interior and encircled the duo, clad in fur, leather, and lace, amidst strobe lights and camera flashes.
As the sun went down over the Rocky Mountains, The Hellp spun a final encore and looked towards their future. “We’ve got more ground to cover, so there is no sense in feeling nothing until it’s over,” said Lucy. “Never DJed in the snow before. It doesn’t feel any different than how it always has, though, every experience is a part of our unending revolution,” said Dillon.
