Stephen met Jean-Louis Dumas, the president of Hermes, in Moscow one snowy winter night. Jean-Louis carries around a little sketchbook wherever he goes and uses it to record all of his various travel experiences. Years later, the idea came up for this Hermes travel pouch - designed by Jean-Louis himself. We were traveling a lot at the time and were amused by the idea of a collection of imaginary, faraway places and the silly postcards that say things like “Greetings from Mars." Contributors included Andreas Gursky, Mary Ellen Mark, Wolfgang Tillmans, Bruce Weber, Lauren Greenfield, Peter Lindbergh, and Jeff Burton. The postcards were made individual not only by the singular vision of each contributing artist but also by the original graphic treatment on the reverse side of each of the fifty-five silver-edged images. They also proved to be excellent party invitations. We sent boxes of them to friends in such far-flung places as Tokyo, Bangkok, Paris, and Brooklyn, which they then mailed back to us with the requisite postage stamps, and the inevitable wear and tear of shipping and handling.
