Ständig hunger. Ett nytt sätt att visuellt gestalta Selma Lagerlöf på

Abstract

Constant Hunger. A New Way of Representing Selma Lagerlöf Visually. “I do have a great talent, that is no need being ceremonious about, but my soul is of that very reason in a constant hunger and it needs all the excitement of hard work to be at peace. And if I don’t have work, I need love or great success.” – Selma Lagerlöf, 1903. The Swedish writer and Nobel price winner Selma Lagerlöf is more modern than ever, but the visual representations of her are as traditional as before. Many modern research projects on Selma are working intensely with removing the myth of her just being an old lady telling stories in front of the fireplace. The new Selma myth presents a woman who could love passionately and had close to laughter and tears, but also a conscious and purposeful writer who took on artistic matters with mathematical precision. This work describes the attempt of finding a way to create a visual representation of the modern Selma myth, that has the same progressivity as the research texts that it is to communicate. The result is a fashion photo story and a still life photo story presented in a joint magazine shape. The aim is to attract attention to new ways of visually representing a historical person, such as Selma. At the same time as the work attempts to represent Selma, it is also an exploration of how a magazine about the style of middle aged women can look like.