ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the female photographers of the past in Finland and Lapland. A Finnish woman is known for her independence, and in photography she has found an area in which she can work to gain that independence. The photograph was a new invention, and, as an innovation, it was an expression of modernity, a sign of progress. Women seemed eager to seize this opportunity all over Finland. Naturally, one reason for this was the opportunity to improve their legal and social conditions by becoming professional photographer. Women photographers in their 'silent and hidden operations of gender', although visible, were move into and within the public domain, as Hildur Larsson and the Autti sisters demonstrated. The progress of Lyyli and Hanna was tied to a vibrant village in northern Finland, in which the new winds of the early twentieth century were blowing. It empowered and advanced Lyyli and Hanna to become 'new women', as reflected in camping photograph.
