That’s a good question. The Google dictionary defines Max as:

max /maks/ Informal
Noun: A maximum amount – “the sound is distorted to the max.”
Adverb: At the most – “it took me ten minutes max to make this salad.”
Verb: Reach or cause to reach the limit of capacity or ability – "job growth in high technology will max out.”
Abbreviation symbol: max. maximum.

I think the salad definition probably comes closest.

Unintentionally – I’m mostly interested in coming up with ideas, and I started getting into photography to document those ideas.

For quite some time, I’ve been interested in very mundane and ordinary objects. A few years ago, I founded the magazine Ordinary, which takes a closer look at all these ordinary objects that surround us every day, with the intention to turn them into something extraordinary. I love these very simple transformations into something completely new, and that was also the starting point of Mundane Machines.
The objects around us are all turning into smart-devices that already do the work for us, like fridges ordering food, heaters knowing exactly what temperature an individual person likes, or cars that drive in auto-pilot. Inspired by that, I imagined a Transformer-like scenario where not only cars would turn into advanced robots but even your boring sofa or washing machine would too!

Those were just the first objects that came to mind, and I think there are still many more that could be made in the future, like vacuum cleaners, fridges, toasters and transformer-toilets.

Technological evolution brings just as many positive aspects as negative ones, so I wouldn’t necessarily say it criticises it. However, I think with most of my work, I try to inspire to have a critical point of view and not take everything that’s around you for granted.

Probably. I like when anyone, including people that have absolutely nothing to do with art, can understand and relate to a message. I think often overcomplicating doesn’t make something better; stripping it back to its core usually shows if something works or not.

None of the models were aware of what they would be doing that day, but I think at this point, most people that work with me have just given up to complain.

I don’t pay too much attention if something will be good or not; it’s just something you need to try and get out of your head, and the idea can often turn out completely different to what you first imagined and you just need to do it to see what happens. I think one of the biggest tragedies are all the people that have fun ideas but they’re not confident enough to do it. Who cares if it turns out to be a failure? Learn from it and try again!

I had a very mixed reaction. On one hand, I questioned everything we do as creatives and the pointlessness of it all, but at the same time, it also brought a ton of new inspiration and themes to work with. And during the lockdown, I made a few dozen new projects inspired by this new reality we were living in.

I think it’s very important to try and find humour in even the worst of situation, otherwise you’re already three-quarters dead. Generally speaking, I think it’s just a way for me to process current topics. Often, we only hear about something in a very serious way, so humour usually helps to digest the same subject in a more approachable way.

If I could, I would stop after the idea part – that’s when it’s the rawest and purest, and executing it will always influence and warp it a little bit. However, in the case of Sigrid, it taught me a valuable lesson about how important it is to stay extremely flexible and adapt. The result can sometimes be more exciting when you don’t try to control everything.
The shoot was an absolute catastrophe, and we could only show half of what happened. However, I think considering we just went with the flow while everything was crashing down on us, we ended up with a much better video than what I actually had in mind in the first place. It taught me that you can make something nice whatever is thrown at you, you just need to keep an open mind.

Life is very short, and it’s nice to try and learn as many different things as possible.

A magician never reveals his secrets.

More books, more photos, more sculptures, more videos and a whole lot more love.