Arvida Byström (born October 4, 1991) is a Swedish artist, who is mainly known as a photographer and model, but who also makes music. She is based in Los Angeles, London and Stockholm. She cooperates with many magazines and brands such as

Nasty Gal Nasty Gal is an American retailer that specializes in fashion for young women. The company has customers in over 60 countries. Founded by Sophia Amoruso in 2006, Nasty Gal was named "Fastest Growing Retailer" in 2012 by '' Inc.'' magazine. Nasty ...

, Monki, ''

Wonderland Magazine ''Wonderland'' is a British bi-monthly magazine based in Notting Hill, London, dedicated to lifestyle, fashion and popular culture. It was launched in September 2005 by editor Huw Gwyther under Visual Talent Ltd., after proposing the business i ...

'', ''

Lula Magazine ''Lula: Girl of My Dreams'' is a biannual British culture and fashion magazine launched in 2005 by fashion photographer Damon Heath, and stylist Leith Clark. Clark, who served as both the founder and editor-in-chief of the magazine, created the p ...

'', ''Vice'', ''

Rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience and expertise, a rookie is usually inexperienced ...

'', ''

Garage Magazine ''Garage'' is a biannual publication dedicated to contemporary art and fashion. It was founded by Dasha Zhukova in 2011. Its name comes from the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow, which Zhukova opened in 2008. A Russian-language editio ...

'', ''Baby Baby Baby magazine'' and ''I heart magazine''.

Early life

Arvida Byström was born on 4 October 1991, near

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Art and photography

Byström started taking pictures at age 12 with a

digital camera A digital camera is a camera that captures photographs in digital memory. Most cameras produced today are digital, largely replacing those that capture images on photographic film. Digital cameras are now widely incorporated into mobile device ...

, and took a lot of

selfie A selfie () is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or smartphone, which may be held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick. Selfies are often shared on social media, via social networking services such as F ...

s to “know the truth about how the world sees you”. Initially inspired by

Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...

, she started posting pictures on her account and taking part in a community of female artists questioning feminity and gender standards, using a so-called “girly” aesthetic and “girly coded stuff”. Byström also took pictures about period-related things in the series There Will Be Blood, published in ''Vice'', on 17 May 2012. Byström then moved to London to become more independent. She made her first fashion series for Monki and created her own gallery space, GAL, with fellow photographer and friend Hanna Antonsson. Through GAL they curated emerging artists for one night shows. In spite of this, Byström still positioned herself as being more a part of popular culture than the art world. As a member of the female collective The Ardorous, Byström presented some of her photographs in ''Babe'' – a book published in May 2015, including the work of 30 other female artists, curated by

Petra Collins Petra Collins (born December 21, 1992) is a Canadian artist, director of photography, fashion model and actress who rose to prominence in the early 2010s. Her photography is characterized by a feminine, dreamlike feel, informed in part by a fema ...

. The same year, Byström took part in the exhibition ''Girls At Night On The Internet'', curated by Grace Miceli, together with artists such as Collins,

Molly Soda Amalia Soto, known as Molly Soda, is a Brooklyn-based internet performance artist. Soda works across a variety of digital platforms, producing selfies videos, GIFs, zines, and web-based performance art, which are presented both online and in g ...

and Maggie Dunlap. The show dealt with the misrepresentation of young artists in the art world and showcased their work. Byström created a performance with the artist Maja Malou Lyse, which was called

Selfie Stick A selfie stick is used to take photographs or video by positioning a digital camera device, typically a smartphone, beyond the normal range of the arm. This allows for shots to be taken at angles and distances that would not have been possible with ...

Aerobics, a tutorial aimed to teach participants how to take better selfies while accepting their bodies to make them feel beautiful. In 2017 Byström and Molly Soda released a book about

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

censorship, called ''Pics or It Didn’t Happen: Images Banned From Instagram''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bystrom, Arvida Swedish women artists Swedish women photographers Swedish photographers Living people 1991 births Place of birth missing (living people)