-2011- Mood Pictures Stockholm Syndrome Now

But here is the part that never made it into the reblogs: On the plane home, Elin deleted her Tumblr. She never photographed another window. She became a graphic designer in Cincinnati, then a mother, then someone who looked back at 2011 with a kind of fond horror.

And she would think: That’s the real Stockholm Syndrome. Falling in love with your own captivity, then missing it after you’re free. -2011- mood pictures stockholm syndrome

Within a week, the picture had been reblogged 43,000 times. The first person to save it was a 17-year-old in Melbourne named Cassie. Cassie had never been to Sweden. She didn’t know Elin’s name. But she felt the photograph in her sternum: the rain, the solitary light, the sense of being trapped in something beautiful. She added a filter—a faded greenish tint, like old hospital walls—and re-captioned it: “i want to be held but only by someone who will also hurt me.” But here is the part that never made

She closed her laptop. Outside her window, it had started to rain. She did not take a picture. And she would think: That’s the real Stockholm Syndrome

Her mother said, “Come home.”