Arvida Byström (born 4 October 1991) is a Swedish photographer, model, and musician.

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, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. She grew up in

Värmdö Municipality Värmdö Municipality () is a municipalities of Sweden, municipality in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. Its seat is in the town of Gustavsberg, Värmdö Municipality, Gustavsberg, with a population of 9,682 (2005), on the main island at a ...

Art and photography

Byström started taking pictures at age 12 with a

digital camera A digital camera, also called a digicam, is a camera that captures photographs in Digital data storage, digital memory. Most cameras produced today are digital, largely replacing those that capture images on photographic film or film stock. Dig ...

, and took a lot of

selfie A selfie () is a self-portrait photograph or a short video, typically taken with an electronic camera or smartphone. The camera would be usually held at arm's length or supported by a selfie stick instead of being controlled with a self-timer ...

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

Tumblr Tumblr (pronounced "tumbler") is a microblogging and Social networking service, social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and is owned by American company Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content ...

, she started posting pictures on her account and taking part in a community of female artists questioning femininity 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 fe ...

. 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 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 wi ...

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 an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

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) Artists from Stockholm