I’m Michael Rubenstein, a photographer and filmmaker from NY. I’m also completely obsessed with fountain pens. A few years ago my wife bought me one for the holidays, I thanked her, stuck it in a drawer and completely forgot about it for a few months. One day I was looking around for a pen to take to a meeting and I saw it, inked it up and took with with me. It was at that meeting while taking notes that my obsession began. I loved my first pen but I wanted to try something different. The Fountain Pen Hospital was the closest store to my apartment so I took the Q downtown, transferred to the R and was there. I walked out of that store with a Montegrappa Passione in orange and I haven’t stopped collecting pens since. I’ve even started photographing them for fun in my down time.
I travel all over the world on shoots, I think I spend more time in hotel rooms than I do in my own house, and no matter where I am I always travel with my pens and a notebook. I take them everywhere. This year it’s been Rio, Hanoi, Cleveland, LA and Detroit who knows where I’ll be in 2018. What I do know is that wherever I am, my pens will be with me.