Hilma Ljung lived on a farm in the small Swedish town of Svalöv. From 1908-1922, she used a 4 x 5 view camera to beautifully photograph her family, children playing, working on the farm, gardening and people in the surrounding land. Ljung’s images chronicle everyday activity with a deep and genuine passion; a favorite place to pick mushrooms or the lake where a son fished.

A caring mother and a rare female photographer for her time, her work offers a refreshing and touching feminine perspective to an era mostly documented by male photographers.

One hundred years later, her granddaughter Elizabeth Seipal gave the glass plate negatives to Hendrik Paul, a professor and contemporary photographer working in the San Francisco area. Paul was captivated by Ljung’s work and, using her original negatives, developed the contemporary prints that are featured in this small-scale exhibition. The photographs and their re-emergance offer visual connections between the past and present.