Now that all work is done, is it fair to say that remodeling your home is comparable to setting up a still life?

MAURICE: Actually, it is. A house is a still life. It is a major fully orchestrated construction project from the choice of the type of wood, to picking out the light switches. None of what you see is original.

LIESBETH: The building had no walls. Together with a cousin who is an architect, we renovated this empty industrial warehouse. His way of thinking was in line with ours, although we always tend to rule the process. It is an anomaly.

What ‘s the story behind the few remaining walls?

LIESBETH: First it was a potato storage, after that it served as a warehouse for trade and finally it was a linoleum store. The industrial site consisted of two sheds that we renovated into one project together with friends.

MAURICE: Have you seen the photo series in Modern Design Review with the colored background we have made for Muller Van Severen? Well, we photographed it here, just before the renovation took place. Meanwhile, the floor has disappeared.

LIESBETH: The floor and the furniture pieces were a perfect match.

MAURICE: Currently we are waiting for a Muller Van Severen custom-made neon lamp. We love being surrounded by brands and designers whose work we admire. The color palette on the walls and the paint is from Farrow & Ball, we have Delta Lights and many objects by Scholten & Baijings, another Dutch duo we regularly work with. If possible, we would always exchange goods. But because we have to pay off bills and a house, we occasionally charge money. [laughing]

LIESBETH: We have moved a lot of stuff from our previous home, such as plants and furniture. The atmosphere is similar, but the combination of living and working is completely new to us. We really like it.

Our work is quite small and minimal. We work in duo and if someone else joins us, it becomes blurry. We try to build concentration that you feel throughout the photo series.

Do you live and work in separate spaces, or does your private and professional life overlap sometimes?

LIESBETH: We have two children, which makes it easier for rooms and functions to merge.

MAURICE: When the kids return home at the end of the day, we are done concentrating. And that’s good, because we want to give them the attention they require. We have installed a rule that we never work on Wednesday. It’s great to take a step back during the week and look at your own work from a distance. We do get assistance from one employee and one trainee. Not on set, because there it’s only me and Liesbeth. We try to reduce the number of people entering the studio. Clients usually understand it is unpleasant when someone is watching over your shoulders. Our work is quite small and minimal. We work in duo and if someone else joins us, it becomes blurry. We try to build concentration that you feel throughout the photo series. After the first shot we sometimes think: Wow, this is it. But this shot never makes it to the final cut. A photo should evolve. You need to touch it and understand it. When we have completed the series at the end of the week, we reshoot the first and second photograph. Every detail is important in our work and therefore we have to check everything ourselves.

Are your roles defined when you work in pairs?

LIESBETH: There is no strict division. Sometimes I look through the lens, while Maurice is shifting the object, whereas sometimes it’s the other way round. Maurice is trained as a technical photographer and with me being a visual artist, I ultimately do more set design. Since light is an essential part of creating of an image, we do this together. We work a lot with shadows: how they move and enter the still life.

MAURICE: It is a slow creative process, and it is not about creating a single picture.

LIESBETH: We build together. If one gets a hunch, we try it out, while the other observes.

MAURICE: It is a chess game. One responds to the other’s action. Together we build an image in front of the camera.

How did your first collaboration come about?

MAURICE: We were in a relationship for two or three years and we shared the same way of working. Liesbeth embroidered wall hangings and I was working on still lifes. We both loved details, the slow process and we both worked alone. Liesbeth had a very nice idea for a photoshoot I was doing in Paris, so I said: let’s do it together.

LIESBETH: We liked the idea of sharing creativity.

MAURICE: The shoot went very well. The following year we did another project together and after that more jobs followed. We exhibited both separately, when photography and the arts were still different entities to us. In the meantime they have come together and our applied and autonomous works have become entwined.

LIESBETH: It suddenly felt strange to say which work was autonomous and which wasn’t. When we do commissioned work, we experience a lot of freedom in finding solutions, and we like to scan our limits within this framework.

By taking away everyday objects from their original context, abstraction takes place. Is it by creating a distance that you learn to look at an object differently?

MAURICE: Our approach helps us to breathe new life into an object. For Balenciaga we dove into the catacombs of the Musée de la Mode de Paris and we used the archive cabinets to create a composition with. For Pastoe we didn’t use cupboards, but in the factory we photographed its separate parts, as a rhythm and soul of the pieces of furniture. And for three years in a row we have been able to create extraordinary visuals for Most Beautiful Suisse Books. Whether it’s a book, a hinge or a rug, we use it as components to create an interesting photo series with. Our work is about observing and therefore we use still lifes.

Isn’t it striking that from all creative disciplines, fashion chooses to work with you, especially since you shun every notion of physicality in your work.

MAURICE: The White Shirts series for Fantastic Man was a turning point for us. We had shown that we were able create interesting still lifes using clothing. And by focusing on a seam or a collar, we had depicted fashion in a very pragmatic way. This new way of working, permitted us to be 100% in control. After that commission, other fashion labels followed.  The fashion world is dubious. It is magical and it is nice to have a taste of it. We don’t live in the center of fashion and by regularly taking our distance, we have managed to develop our own vision and handwriting, in which we never have to make too many concessions to our clients.