Anders Edström is a Swedish photographer and filmmaker who has worked with Maison Martin Margiela since the early 1990s – establishing his name in the  fields of fashion photography, art and film for his intimate, no-fuss approach to image production that creates soft, emotive pictures. He was one of the first photographers in Europe who moved away from the glossy, over-produced fashion imagery of the late 1980s to using small cameras, natural light and documentary style shooting, which proved very successful amongst the more avant-garde fashion scene.

Margiela enlisted him to shoot their backstage images from 1991 – 1998, as well as him shooting many special stories on the house for various magazines. Edström has also been a long time contributor to Purple magazine and Self Service, a collaborator with fashion designer Ann Sofie Back (a fellow Swede) and has published his work with Steidl as two books in 2004, with the abstract titles of  ‘waiting some birds a bus a woman’ and ‘spidernets places a crew’. He released his debut feature film ‘The Anchorage’ with co-director C.W. Winter in 2009 (image below).

For A#1 Anders was asked most politely, on the 8th of April 2004, by the Maison Martin Margiela to contribute his work.

“Dear Anders,

As you know we are busy preparing our edition of ‘A Magazine’ and have as a theme our own diaspora. We are very happy with your proposition that we propose you a theme for you work. After some thought we wish that you express yourself on ‘white’. White in any which way you wish it’s up to you!
Looking forward to seeing your proposition.

Maison Martin Margiela.”

He did so with a thoughtful edit of images from a shoot in Marie Claire Japan from Spring 1993, that was one of his Margiela special editorial pieces from the time. Apart from the subtle addition of a white lab coat hanging from a wardrobe door (the signature uniform of the house), the images could scarcely be called ‘fashion’ – nevertheless they each carry the essence of white – whether it be cloudy cobwebs woven over leaves, an infants diaper or a crack of bright sunlight.