The Lens of Eternity

How does long-term love shape people? What are the practicalities of the mystery? Find out in The Lens of Eternity: Queer Love from Two Pandemics. It addresses the life of photographer Berenice Abbott and her partner, Elizabeth McCausland, a noted art critic, as well as the author's own life while quarantining with her partner. This page-turner also offers an insider's view of photographic and art history, including how, through Berenice's efforts, Eugene Atget, who photographed "Old Paris," came to be known as the Master of Photography that history accorded him. Berenice Abbott, who survived the "Spanish flu" pandemic of 1918-1920, is known for, among other things, her photography while living in Paris for a decade in the 1920s and her work photographing Manhattan in the 1930s. Elizabeth McCausland was often overlooked in her lifetime, especially as Berenice's long-term partner. Mason brings together these four queer lives in the past and the present in long-term relationships that require compromise and forgiveness as she gives shape to the shadows and reveals what can be learned from hidden lives. Ultimately, including the author's and her partner's choice to go to a plant-based diet for health and ethical reasons, it's all about love.