Inspired by the iconic Hasselblad photograph Earthrise, photographed from Apollo 8 in 1968, Moment 10 turns its focus to both space and the Earth: to astronomy and the environmental movement, natural sciences, medical history and the role of lens-based media in shaping knowledge.
The symposium moves between the cosmic and the terrestrial, with particular attention to photography and film within the natural sciences in Sweden 1939–1969. During the post-war period, a strong belief in science emerged; a belief in research’s capacity to solve societal problems and to create a better world. In these decades, the space race gained momentum – from Sputnik to the moon landing – and the camera became a crucial instrument for depicting and explaining reality.
The narrative of the Anthropocene is often anchored in Earthrise, the photograph of a luminous Earth suspended above the moon’s horizon. As one of the earliest colour images of the planet taken from space, it quickly came to symbolise not only new technological possibilities but also a global environmental consciousness in formation. Its simultaneous articulation of Earth’s splendour and vulnerability resonated widely. In Sweden, environmental awareness had been steadily rising since the post-war years, culminating in 1972 when Stockholm hosted the United Nations’ first environmental conference, guided by the influential report Only One Earth: The Care and Maintenance of a Small Planet.
In 1966, Naturfotograferna (The Swedish Society for Nature Photographers) was established in response to manipulated reportage photography that relied on staged scenes and taxidermied animals. Supported by Victor Hasselblad, who shared their commitment to photographic integrity, the organisation soon became intertwined with the expanding nature conservation movement. Similar shifts occurred in other scientific and cultural arenas: at the Gothenburg Botanical Garden, priorities in botanical research were reoriented in line with new political and climatological debates, while Lennart Nilsson embarked on his long collaboration with the Karolinska Institute, producing some of Sweden’s most influential medical images. Collaborations between scientists and photographers were established, helping to disseminate scientific knowledge and sparking public curiosity about the human body, the natural world, and outer space.
The symposium engages with these interlinked developments in nature photography and scientific visualisation, bringing together perspectives from astronomy, physics, medicine, and botany, alongside insights from popular science and the environmental movement.
PROGRAM MOMENT 10
09:00–09:45
Bus Gothenburg–OSO
(Kerstin Hamilton gives a brief introduction to the history of the Onsala Space Observatory and the site itself)
10:00–10:20
Introduction to the MOMENT series (Mats Jönsson + Niclas Östlind)
Introduction to the symposium (Louise Wolthers + Kerstin Hamilton)
10:20–10:45
Johan Kärnfelt
To What Scientific Use?: On the Introduction of Astrophotographic Techniques at the Stockholm Observatory in the Late Nineteenth Century
10:45–11:10
Presentation 2: Louise Wolthers
See the Earth! Photography and Nature Conservation in Sweden Before 1968
Short break
11:30–11:50
Presentation 3: Katja Lindblom
The Space Race from an Optical Perspective
11:50–12:15
Åsa Krüger
Gothenburg Botanical Garden 1939–1969
12:15–13:00
LUNCH
13:00–14:00
Guided tour of the observatory grounds
(Robert Cumming, Communications Officer, Onsala Space Observatory)
14:00–14:25
Kerstin Hamilton
Making Space and Physics Visible: The Democratic Potential of Photography within Science
14:25–14:35
Coffee break
14:40–15:10
Solveig Jülich
Lennart Nilsson’s Cosmos
15:10–15:35
Henrik Ekman
/ N engagerad sextioåring [Eng: N/An Engaged Sixty-Year-Old]
15:35–16:10
Concluding discussion
16:15–17:00
Bus OSO–Gothenburg – conversations continue on the way back!
