Right now, I’ve got this new fascination – an obsession almost. It has partly started during a school project, but also with something I recognize in myself. I’m talking about old ladies. Cool old ladies. Like the ones you wanna be when you grow up. I school we’re doing stock photo agencies at the moment and in my group we’re focusing on identity – and the aim is to change something about the perception of different identities or identity as a whole.
In my portfolio for this project, I’m working on showing old women in a way, that’s not you classic old pensioner knitting at the old people’s home – and the photos of them are often just about communicating that this is an old person. My project has been to show these old ladies in the sam way that my generation is usually shown in photos – young and hip and on the go. Why shouldn’t you be able to olde and hip and on the go? The older generation is so exciting, they’ve experienced so much, they have so much to tell, so much character and so many of them have such great style! My little project in school shooting old ladies in the streets of CPH has grown a lot bigger than just a school project.
Especially when it comes to style and attitude, I’m fascinated by the older generation and I get so inspired from seeing how they dress and how they strut down the street. So sure of themselves and so cool!
I’ve actually started doing some small projects about glorifying old people. I think that there’s something so beautiful lost in the way that we as a society often fear getting old, when you think of the history, character and inspiration that lies in old people. Old age is simply not that attractive, even though we’re all going there! Even I’m scared of turning 25 in a bit, whilst I’m still dreaming of being one of these old ladies. Look at how radiating they are!
I recently had a chat with a guy, and I told him about my fascination of old women style. He said something like that it’s hard for old women to dress cool if even possible and that the fashion that’s produced can only be worn by young people. Firstly, I started out by disagreeing completely, stating that it was a matter of attitude and also a matter of cultural conventions about how old people should look. Secondly it made me think. What if I could do just a little bit about making old age attractive and broadening his idea of how an old lady should look and dress.
If I’ll get around to doing it right, I think that I decided to try and make old age cool.
Are you as fascinated by old women, or am I just going solo on this one?
