Maurice Scheltens was born in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands, in 1972 and Liesbeth Abbenes was born in Asten, The Netherlands, in 1970. In 2002, they put an ampersand between their names to visualize and consolidate their working relationship. Since Scheltens is both an applied and an autonomous still-life photographer and Abbenes is an autonomous artist with the skill of a traditional craftsman, as a duo they form "the best of both worlds." Their oeuvre consists of still lifes featuring virtually every kind of tangible material, from folded shirts and fragile flowers to huge furniture constellations that fill entire rooms. In their work they experiment with converting spatial dimensions into flat surfaces and explore photography's potential for creating illusion. They also work for clients including Yves Saint Laurent, Vitra, Hermès, COS, Balenciaga/Musée de la Mode Paris and magazines such as Fantastic Man, Wallpaper, Pin-Up, and T Magazine, The New York Times style magazine. Abbenes studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and the Rijksakademie of Fine Arts and Scheltens graduated at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague. They both live and work in Amsterdam.