a museum i forgot i built

today i opened the hard drive

of my first computer.

it had been off for years.

inside, i found a photographer.

a soulmate, really.

her name is martina olsson.

and inside her folder —

nested in the kind of disorganisation

only the very young

can be forgiven for —

nine hundred and nineteen images.

twenty-seven stories.

and a third name —

johan miderberg —

martina’s love, our editor,

the quiet steady presence

on every shoot day,

the man who took our raw images

and turned them into the gold

we sent to magazines.

we were not two.

we were three.

every concept came from the same conversation.

the kind of conversation that happens

between people who are still figuring out

who they are

and who decide, before they know it,

that they will figure it out together.

martina photographed.

i styled.

johan edited.

we three dreamed it

before any camera or any dress

or any softening hand of light

ever entered the room.

that is why the work was beautiful.

not because of one of us —

because of three of us.

twenty-seven stories:

black witch · sleeping beauty · sleepy hollow ·

snowwhite · lolita · dark butterfly · nova: mark ryden ·

emma’s dream · a midsummer night’s dream · waterlily ·

lady sturkatten · mirjana · camera girl · dear widow ·

grand hotel · piet · vice · shirley temple · to eleanor ·

a girl like betty · casting for snowwhite · omenpojke ·

fallen angel · swedes · desire shoot ·

the years we worked.

twenty-seven entire worlds —

made by three young people in stockholm,

with the doors of every magazine slowly opening

because we were that good

when we were together.

i had forgotten how much we made.

i had forgotten what we built together

before the world made us part.

i do not have them anymore.

but i have the museum.

and as i wrote last week

in i contain the louvre —

“i do not take these paintings down.

they are part of the collection.

the wound is part of the collection.

the garden is part of the collection.”

the gardens we tended

with our six hands

are part of the collection too. 💜

photographs by martina olsson · concept by martina olsson & alice saga · styling by alice saga · image editing by johan miderberg

faith · hope · love

alice

🌸🦢💜