French fashion designer Hedi Slimane began taking photographs long before he started making clothes, as his recent Anthology of a Decade revealed: ‘I’ve always taken pictures,’ he told former Interview magazine editor Ingrid Sischy, ‘almost like some people take notes or write down their thoughts.’

This volume presents a collection of Slimane’s black-and-white photographs taken in Moscow and Berlin: portraits of young men at military academies, on manoeuvres, exercising or resting, collectively or alone, as well as still lifes and snow scenes taken in both cities. This publication is revelatory both as a hitherto little-known instance of Slimane’s many talents, and as an elucidation of his work in fashion.