Mark Borthwick Xerox - 2000-1 Maison Martin Margiela

For this collaboration Mark Borthwick was invited to freely interpret the Fall/Winter 1998/99 Maison Martin Margiela collection. The book features images unpublished elsewhere. Margiela's understated clothes are the perfect compliment to Borthwick's photographic sensibility, resulting in some of their best work. Originally published in 1998, Borthwick reproduced photocopy versions around 2002 for friends who had missed or could not afford the by then rare first editions. He did them in a small print run, though the total number is unknown. It appears to be made by laying the book directly on a photocopier; the image is of the book itself rather than an accurately flat reproduction of the original image. Rendered in grayscale tones, the work is much more unified, and typifies Borthwick's obscure and quotidian style. These self-published 'xerox' versions have probably taken an even more cult status than the original books.