Eternity Finally Begins on Monday (La eternidad por fin comienza un lunes) is a magical realist novel by Eliseo Alberto which, to my surprise, has never been translated into English. It's a shame. The novel is clever, playful and a little surreal, just as I like thinking about the world around me.


I've always loved its title. It feels like a micro-story on its own, but even more, I love the idea of eternity beginning in ordinary moments, of finding something lasting in everyday life.


Literature has always been part of me, and seeing the world through words isn't that far from photography. Every photographer speaks their own language—only this time, it's visual.


So now eternity begins in photographs. It might begin on a Monday. It might begin on any other day as well, when you simply pick up a camera, point and shoot.


I treat film photography with reverence. Thirty-six frames are just enough to capture the essence of a place, to enter eternity, yet limited enough to leave out the unimportant rather than swim through memories only to drown in them later.


It happened that I walked with a film camera during my very first visit to Melbourne. The city was new and vibrant, exciting and refreshing. Oh gosh, I loved it so much, as if it were promising me a break after years of frequent travelling


Our apartment was next to the Royal Botanic Gardens, and that's where I would begin my daily walks, slowly discovering the collections of the NGV and ACMI, drifting with the warm waves of tourists and office workers along Swanston Street, all the way to the State Library of Victoria, where I would finally stop for a break around noon. The afternoons were reserved for resting in the endless cafés and gardens of Brunswick and Carlton, sometimes catching the tram to South Yarra or all the way to St Kilda.

Now, years later, that promise has been fulfilled. I like returning to these photographs and asking myself what drew my attention back then. What was it trying to preserve? What ordinary moment was asking to become part of eternity on a casual Monday?