“I was so pleased to find your books in my mailbox today.
Thank you for working so hard to get them here,
and also thank you for signing each book and the slip box.
The interview at the conclusion of “Suspended” was strong. I’ve read so much of your writing, but I still learned something new about you. Your spirit in the interview is much more bold, confident, and fearless. I copied the quote, Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind into a list of things that I read every day to help me remember who I want to become. They are good words to live by.
The preface to “Emotions” by Bodil Malmsten was perfect because it framed my mind for the photos that followed. Well done. You’d explained some of that to me before, but Malmsten summarized it nicely. Your juxtaposition of your family generations in the context of Jamtland is powerful, and you’ve created a sense of place inhabited by such distinct and intriguing personalities.
Your Granny comes through as both alive and used up by age, a spirit that’s free to eat out of a saucepan and play with cats, and that at other times feels alone, forlorn, and breathing fire. And then your cousin and granny come together, playing with lip gloss, and the contrast is magic.
I hope you will take it as a compliment when I say that not only are the photos in the books wonderful, but your more recent work since publication eclipses all that came before. I hope you know that’s true. I look forward to collecting your work for a long time. Intentionally or not, you’ve chosen a life of extremes - the suckiness of building your own business, and the abundant brilliance that will surely come.
The important thing is that you’ve done it on your own terms and in your own way.
You’ve taken a camera and, where others saw only their normal lives and surroundings, you’ve made something memorable that reaches across continents. It’s your gift, and it’s powerful.
Winter is newly arrived in the Rocky Mountains, and the snows this week are the first to stick and frost the tree branches. (Skiing…soon!) My cat is bothering me for something mysterious and I know it’s not food because she has plenty. Maybe she wants me to brush her, but I don’t want to right now. I’m eating toast with butter and Sylt Lingon from Ikea and enjoying your books and thinking about how far you’ve come and how dark and hopeless it seemed at times.
That’s inspiring to me because things have been a bit gloomy here for the past six months, and I need hope the same way you once did. I need the strong spirit that got you through your long Jamtland winters and agoraphobia, and then out into the open, onto busses and airplanes and across oceans into the sun of Italy and Africa, and then finally into the arms of your wonderful man.
It’s a good story but it’s only just begun for you.
Kind regards from your friend.
