Old Women Project

Your response to Sue’s phone photo of me in my old age, modeling Cristina’s outfit, has shocked and humbled me. I feel every heart as a hand-squeeze of encouragement, a hug of friendship. I am touched beyond words. Thank you, thank you. 

That leads me directly to the new project I am envisioning, inspired by an idea board Cristina created on Pinterest to show me what she had in mind when she asked me to model for her. She called it “Hip-Glam Grandma.” Looking through the photos she chose, I realized how seldom I see images of old women that are not intended to ridicule or stereotype. I’d like to help bring new images into existence as collaborations between old women and photographers. Like the one of Sue I’m posting here.

Antjie Krog writes angrily about the stereotype “old woman” in a poem called “manifesta of a grandma.” (I have the poem, but can’t find it online, or I would link it.) Krog writes, “somewhere inevitably lurks misshapen/ a grandma anachronistically in Dr Scholl’s shoes/ joyously knitting—spectacled and bunned. A bun/ for fuck’s sake!” She resists the stereotype by naming the condescension, the head-patting superiority, the toxic ridicule embedded in ageism. So not those old women, but the ones we know. Edgy, passionate, crackling with creativity, on fire with life, speaking their mind. 

I see these portraits as collaborations, facilitated but not directed by the photographer. Each “sitter” the author of her own look, artist of her own image. Each “subject” decides what to wear, where to be photographed, how much of herself she wants to show (head, torso, full body, back, feet, whatever). She decides how to pose and what, if anything, to pose with (an instrument, a cat, a car, a watering can). 

The photographer’s job is to record her as she wants to be seen, to stay out of the way as she crafts the image, to get a decent exposure. Or a heap of decent exposures. I like natural light; another photographer might want stage lighting. The photographer can collaborate, but the principal image-maker is the person in the image, and the person in the image retains agency and must grant permission for the photographer to post or use the image. I’ve written a letter of invitation and a “Collaborative Photo Release” quite different from the standard release, giving equal power to photographer and photographee. (I’ll share those with anyone who is interested.) I suggest inviting the person in the image to write something about herself for viewers of the image to see—on a post, in a gallery or a book—if she wants.

I regard Blipfoto as a kind of gallery of our work, a form of publication. There are also photo books, physical galleries. It could be two or three or seventeen photographers’ projects. It could be a global movement. If you’d like to see more ideas, I now have a couple of vision boards on Pinterest. My name there is @Uppingpins_0h and I think the account is visible, though possibly you need a Pinterest account to see it, so I’m posting screenshots of parts of my “vision board” as extras. Would you like to join me in this project? If so, let’s talk about it. Or not. Up to you. I’m going to use the tag, #OldWomenProject, though that could change. Ideas? What word can we use that suggests agency for a "sitter," a "subject"? Comments open now.