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When someone asks you what you’re most afraid of, what do you say? You may whip out a long list of fears and phobias, scanning it for which ones might be appropriate in this instance. Maybe you’ll say heights, but you’d better not leave out snakes as well. What about clowns, airplane flights, and public speaking? Better yet, might as well take a seat and list them all in alphabetical order. While you’re reading this list, will you say “getting old” amongst your fears?
A study by Mintel showed that a whopping 57 percent of millennials were afraid of getting older. Really? The modern world has made speaking about age a taboo, and it’s glaringly obvious. It’s rude to ask how old someone is, and especially rude to guess. Guessing incorrectly could put you in the dog house for a long, long time. What’s everyone’s problem with age? Modern beauty standards scoff at liver spots, varicose veins, white hairs, and wrinkles. “Why would you embrace your body when you could pay for an $60 lotion to change it?”
The reality is that aging is inevitable, but it is also beautiful! As Lynsay Sands gracefully put it, “Your face is marked with lines of life, put there by love and laughter, suffering and tears. It’s beautiful.” Signs of aging show that your body has carried you through a full life, full of fond memories and millions of adventures. You’ve walked across this Earth, tasted what life has to offer, and thought about all those big questions. You’ve lived, so why wouldn’t you want to show it?
Here are five artists who see the true beauty in aging, and the amazing works they’ve created to show it.
Kosofsky’s project “The Three” is focused around the lives of three elderly people in a love triangle of sorts. The photos emanate love in the truest form. Portraits show the three in daily life, at times completely giddy to be in each other’s presence and at others contented with each others’ company. The happiness and pleasures of life they experienced when they were younger have clearly not faded, as you can see from the moments they share.
After visiting a salon for what she expected to be silly photos of elderly women getting all did up, Robbie Kaye was surprised by the characters of the women that she captured in photographs. The lifetime of the project spanned several years, eventually creating the book and photo series, “Beauty and Wisdom”. Her photos contrast the idea that beauty is a game made for youthful women, and highlight the point that women can be beautiful no matter their age.
Marna Clarke’s project, “Time As We Know It,” focuses specifically on the aging body. Documenting changes in her own body, Clarke’s matter-of-fact photos, including some mild nudes, showcase the bodies of herself and her partner as pieces of artwork. Laid in the sun or settled casually, her photos show how the beauty of life does not stop just because one’s body begins to slow down.
Woven with self portraits and snapshots of her life, Andi Schreiber’s project “Pretty, Please” chronicles moments in her life. A Huffington Post article quotes her in describing as, “an extension of that idea and one that allows me to take stock of where I am right now — as a parent, a partner and a woman at midlife.”
Focused on the faces of elderly people, Antonio Finelli creates hyperrealistic portraits that outline the beauty of the aging face. A Huffington Post article quotes him as saying, “In fact, I don’t like to represent in a drawing the oldness itself but rather the passage of time that ends necessarily in this human state. I am deeply in love with the human body, with the skin — its most external layer, that absorbs and records all the experiences of our life — but most of all I am interested in a body’s evolution, its transformation, throughout the years. I am intrigued by the signs, lines, points, which enrich our cutis year after year and testify all the changes of our lives.” His beautiful interpretation of growing old is apparent in the striking portraits of his subjects.
These artists have identified and highlighted aging as a source of beauty. By treating your bodies like the vehicle for your life, the imperfections become signs of experience rather than indications of some sort of disadvantage. Growing older should be greeted with open arms, rather than scoffed at and avoided. Love yourself in every and any form! We’re sure that these artists will, too.
