Everlasting Moments | How to Capture a Woman's Story and Make it Last Through a Camera?

Maria Larsson was the first female photographer in Sweden, but she did not achieve great fame for it. In fact, her life, aside from photography, was not much different from that of other housewives of her time: living in the early 20th century, getting married, raising seven children, and passing away in middle age due to heart disease. If it were not for the movie "Everlasting Moments," few people in the 21st century would know of her existence.

Four images by Maria Larsson

Everlasting Moments is a biographical film that tells the life story of Maria Larsson, the first female photographer in Sweden. The film portrays both the ordinary and extraordinary aspects of her life. Maria's ordinary side is that, like most Swedish working-class women of her time, she endured poverty in both material and spiritual life. Through the eyes of her daughter, we can see the hardships Maria faced as a housewife. Endless housework, an alcoholic and abusive husband, a relationship lacking respect and love, all caused Maria to show signs of exhaustion and pain. However, due to her devout faith and her parents' admonitions, she chose to silently endure it all.

In this text, I want to emphasize the value of the movie's portrayal of Maria's life from her daughter's perspective. Without this approach, we might not feel as much empathy for this ordinary character. For instance, we might overlook the hardships of Maria's daily routine of housework and child-rearing. We wouldn't fully appreciate the courage it takes for her, as a maid working as a nanny in a wealthy family, to resist sexual harassment and defend her rights. This affection for the protagonist also affects the audience's emotions, as seen through the camera's language. In the movie, scenes featuring the father are always dark with a cold gray-black tone.

However, scenes featuring the mother are much brighter, with a yellow-brown tone.

If nothing unexpected happens, Maria's life will pass in such an ordinary and busy mix of pain and pleasure, and then be forgotten. But a camera changed everything. Maria won the camera through a lottery, but at the time the money for the ticket was provided by her husband. He believed that the camera belonged to him, so the two got married.

She didn't know how to use it and just kept it as an emergency property that could be pawned. It wasn't until a strike left her family struggling that Maria remembered to take out the camera to pawn it. At the photography studio, Maria met Peterson, another very important man in her life. Before Maria decided to sell the camera, Peterson taught her the basics of how the camera works and how to take pictures, and generously provided her with the tools she needed for photography.Through a lens, the shadow of the butterfly appears in Maria's hand. In this moment, Maria is moved, both by the shadows and Peterson.

In my opinion, at the beginning of the marriage, the camera represented an unknown for Maria, indicating the uncertainty of married life and also foreshadowing the unexpected experiences she would have through the camera and Peterson. From then on, Maria had something completely her own. She took photos of the children, the little cat at home, and felt excited and happy about it.

For me, the most touching and significant moment of the film is when Maria is asked to take a photo of Ingeborg, the daughter of her neighbor who has just died accidentally. This moment is an everlasting memory of women's lives. This photo captured Ingeborg's final appearance, providing great comfort to her grieving mother and showing Maria the significance of taking pictures.

As Maria became more aware of the importance of photography for others, she also became more self-aware. She developed greater expectations and joys for the world and began to turn her lens to more distant places. When she heard the military band passing by, she happily grabbed her camera to capture the moment. When she went out for a family outing, she brought her camera along to take pictures of her friends. When she saw a little girl born with a congenital disability, she took the initiative to offer taking photos of the little girl to document her uniqueness.When she aimed her camera at the king, I felt a sense of equality between Maria as the photographer and the king as the subject of her photo. She even built her own darkroom at home, where she was no longer just a wife or a mother, but herself. Through the lens, she discovered a whole new world of her own.

Even Maria's husband felt the change that the camera brought to her. The first time he showed respect to Maria was when he saw her in the darkroom developing photos. He opened the door, silently observed for a while, and then quietly closed the door.

Unfortunately, Maria's self-awareness awakening remained in its early stages. Whenever life presented difficulties, she unconsciously blamed herself for her interest in camera. She believed that her focus on photography had distracted her from her family, her husband, and her child. More significantly, she felt both hopeful and repulsed by the ambiguous relationship between her and Peterson. After her husband was imprisoned, she felt guilty for not missing him. Initially, she was delighted when Peterson invited her to be his assistant in the shop, but then declined the offer.

At this stage, the camera became a projection of Maria's self-awareness. Whenever she wanted to numb herself and avoid feeling the pain of betrayal, being ignored, and working hard day and night, she would put away her camera. When life became unbearable, she even considered giving up photography. However, it was not photography that caused her suffering; it was life itself.

Just when she couldn't bear it and wanted to give up, Peterson's words comforted her:

Through the lens, what do you see, Maria?

You see a world waiting to be explored, preserved, and told.

Photography is for those who see the world.

Since it's for them, they won't turn a blind eye.

There's no turning back.

"There's no turning back" , I believe it refers not only to photography, but also to a way of viewing the world. If a person has seen a broader world, they cannot pretend they haven't. They may fool others, but not themselves. This awakening of self-awareness is a point of no return. In the end, when Maria had enough courage to face life, she picked up her camera once again.

Peterson left, and the husband was released from prison and returned home. When he came back, he found that his horses were still there, and his children were willing to accept him. His attitude towards Maria changed fundamentally. He respected Maria's resilience and compassion and therefore respected her hobbies. The family moved to a new place where there was a darkroom belonging to Maria.

The ending of the movie shows Maria and her husband reconciling. However, not long after, she passes away due to heart disease. In her final moments, she takes a photo of herself in front of the mirror and releases a butterfly that was trapped in the window. To me, this scene suggests that Maria has finally freed herself from the constraints that have been holding her back and has gained inner freedom before the end of her life.

It's hard to say whether Maria represents a certain feminist image of that era. On the one hand, her life trajectory isn't much different from other women of her time. Faced with oppression and suffering, she didn't have a strong rebellion or runaway, nor did she rebel against marital morality by deviating from the norm through sexuality. But on the other hand, through her photography, which was a cutting-edge hobby at the time, she gained a certain existential power. She defended her hobby, saw herself, and saw her world. She actively made choices in life. Her life also influenced her daughter's view of the world.

Maja couldn't understand why her mother didn't divorce her father, but she still remembered her mother fondly. The narrator's perspective, full of love and warmth, sets this film apart from Bergman's works despite their similar visual styles. If you also love Bergman's films, you may notice that Everlasting Moments shares the same brownish-yellow tone, focus on family stories, and use of close-ups as Ingmar Bergman's films, but it doesn't have the same pervasive sense of despair. The film doesn't judge the characters' actions as right or wrong, even in the case of the alcoholic, cheating, abusive father. Instead, it has a kind of warmth. This warmth comes not just from the daughter's tolerance of her father, but also from the photographer's compassion for the world she captures.

It is worth mentioning that although Maja did not directly handle the camera, through her narration, she displays a compassionate and tolerant observer's perspective. She remembers the joys and sorrows in her mother's life, as well as her father's weakness and cruelty. But more importantly, she remembers the hardships of everyone in that era, and remembers that people, like her father, who are capricious, will also show tenderness towards animals and their own vulnerability at some point.

Lastly, I would like to talk about the recurring theme in movies, which is the significance of filming to a person. Since the invention of the camera, people have had a new way of preserving memories. A momentary image can be preserved for a long time through a photograph. When we look at these photos, we may feel a sense of everlasting : a moment of our life can achieve a kind of eternity through this photo.

However, in reality, everyone is born equal, but most people are destined to be completely forgotten throughout their lives. In the early years of camera technology, only a few people had the opportunity to record their lives through cameras, just like only a very few people will be remembered by history. Therefore, having eternal memories or being remembered forever has become a privilege.

As a feminist, I have come to realize that women, particularly ordinary women, have frequently been silenced and disregarded in the history of patriarchy. As a result, history is "his" story, not "hers". From this perspective, it is crucial to use words, photos and films to record, preserve, and explore women's real lives, as it can help rediscover women's history and empower women in today's and future life. Therefore, in my opinion, "Everlasting Moments" is a biographical film told from a woman's perspective. This not only portrays the true life of a woman, but also presents a valuable female narrative.

I really like this movie and recommend it to you. I hope that through filming or watching movies, we can all have our own Everlasting moments.