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Welcome to the first interview from the series TALKS OVER COFFEE. We love the community of people that Father’s has attracted over time. Often, these are people who inspire us and so, we’ve decided to interview them for you shortly. These talks may or may not have something to do with coffee. They’re here to brighten your day, to pause a little. So come sit with us and the Koryntas for a few minutes, two artistic souls, photographers, and fresh parents to their baby boy Henri.
Could you briefly introduce yourself?
We are Lukas and Grace Korynta, Czech-American married couple living in Portland, Oregon, fresh parents to our baby boy Henri, long time parents to our dog Jesse. We love traveling, good food, good coffee and anything photography.
Use three words to describe each other.
Grace: Lukas is passionate, thoughtful and creative.
Lukas: Grace is compassionate, gentle and poetic.
How do you usually start and finish your day?
If we had any routine before, it’s out of the window now haha, it’s all about the baby first thing in the morning and last thing before bed. But after the baby is fed we like to make coffee and we recently got an espresso machine which is an exciting addition in our household. We’re big breakfast people here, mostly savory, unless it’s pancakes. To wind down in the evening we usually watch shows or talk about anything we didn’t get to during the day.
Any favorite shared routines or traditions?
Every year on our anniversary we go to a cabin in the forest somewhere and stay offline for a few days. One silly one we have is that we always put toothpaste on each other’s toothbrush based on who brushes first. We’ve done that since day one when we started living together, not even sure how it started.
Have you learned anything interesting about yourself from being with your partner?
Without going too deep here, we both learned that we love hosting and having people over and creating a warm space for others. Once we had our first home it automatically became a space where our door was always open and a home space for our friends and it never stopped.
How’s working alongside each other? Any interesting experiences? Benefits or drawbacks?
Lukas: Grace has always been helping me with my business even when she had other jobs, she knows I hate booking travel for example and she takes care of it, which is a big help for me. The best part is when we get to travel together for work and go to places we wouldn’t normally go.
Grace: I adore working with Lukas, it is so fun for me to watch him work and do what he does and get inspired by him in real time. It’s lovely to experience what his couples get to experience and then becoming a part of it with him and creating alongside him, it’s a dream.
How do you keep track of your ideas?
We talk. A lot. Any time we have an idea or something excites one of us we just never stop talking about it until it happens.
Do you actively work on nurturing your creativity?
We just always like trying things, playing a little music for our baby, writing, drawing, turning random sunsets into photo shoots etc.
Which project are you particularly proud of?
Lukas: I’m trying to release a street photography book soon!
Grace: I’m currently writing a fictional book so I think that would be my answer the last few years but ever since we’ve had Henri, my heart is more in poetry and I’d like to release a poetry book one day.
How has becoming parents changed your lives both personally and professionally?
Everything is definitely centered around him now but we are also getting excited about all the things he’ll experience for the first time, places to show him and just overall looking at our own future through his eyes.
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Lukas: I love our recent two homes, Portland and San Diego and can’t imagine living anywhere else in the States but these two. Other than that, I can see us living back in Europe at some point, we loved visiting Liverpool in England for example, it stole our hearts.
Grace: I would live in Prague!
What design piece is currently missing at your home to make it perfect?
We’ve been really inspired by painters who make these large colorful canvas art pieces, we’d love to have an original in our home one day.
Can you share one of your favorite photos and the story behind it? What makes it special to you?
Lukas: I was recently in Iceland for a wedding and had some time for myself, maybe for the first time in years, it reminded me how I fell in love with photography, it made me forget all the stresses and hardships that also come with the job sometimes.
Grace: So this photo sort of speaks for itself, but wow. I think it will be my favorite forever. Moments after experiencing the most intense, amazing, empowering thing of my life and getting to meet my favorite person for the first time. So yeah, you can’t really top that feeling. Thankful to Lukas for capturing it.
That’s it. Thank you for reading this far and thanks to Lukáš and Grace for their answers.
More to come soon, see you.
questions and concept: Šárka Morozová
