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The Art of Aging 

A photo story on the themes of beauty and sensuality after 70

This project owes its existence to a revelation I experienced when I encountered Marie-Berthe, a young 102-year-old beauty whose ease and casualness in front of the lens was as impressive as it was inspiring. I was immediately taken with the old woman and the way she totally - almost unconsciously - felt beautiful and attractive and was not afraid to show it off. What if beauty could not be reduced to an idealized aesthetic? What if, beyond the traces left by the passage of time on our features, beauty could be something less tangible but more lasting?  

This vision is far removed from learned ideas and clichés commonly associated with beauty. It doesn’t have to be something that we are born with or without and neither does it have to be the privilege of youth. Beauty has to be much more and, hopefully much better, than this. It is a way of being. Something to cultivate, teach and learn from, and something that each of the nine women, and four men, that reveal themselves in this project are marvelous examples of. As models, they have been a great inspiration to me and it is my hope that my portraits will transmit their spirit and maybe also a precious lesson on the venerable art of aging. 

The elders whose intimacy is revealed and celebrated here share with me a notion of beauty and sensuality that inspires a state of grace. Lightness and depth are here side by side in a provocative but thoroughly pleasurable display. Like dozens of other potential subjects, the models featured here answered my invitation issued on social media over the last few years. They were willing to contribute in their own way to redefine the way we view beauty, sensuality and old age. 

Borrowing from the conventions of Nude and Boudoir photography, the pictures show my fascination with the human body and its great potential for emotional expression. It is therefore of great importance to me to establish a strong bond with my models, with the goal of laying them bare both physically and psychologically. The subjects, captured in their uniqueness, diversity and vulnerability, are sublimated by the use of black-and-white which enhances their presence and adds a poetic dimension to each portrait. 
These pictures also aim to illustrate my irritation with the very conformist way we view beauty and with the pervasive presence of certain imagery that subdue many people into body shaming and a fear of getting old. Camera in hand, I hope to offer different images here – pictures that celebrate a diversity of bodies as well as a different way of feeling beautiful and sensuous.

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Lisa, 70 years old

I see myself as a sensuous woman, sensitive to nature’s various perfumes. I like to feel the earth under my feet, I like to hug trees and talk to them, I like to bathe naked in a river, I like the odors of the morning, I like to taste different dishes, I like to feel my body when I run and when I walk, I like the beauty of a flowered window, a colored door.

I like to hear the churches’ bells, I like to listen to music, I like the champagne’s bubbles, I like to caress and be caressed, I like to explore with my hands, I like to cut vegetables and make soups, I like to feel the sun’s warmth and the rain’s tickle on my skin, I like hugs, all the hugs, I like to dance, I like the movement of bodies.

I like to feel my man’s body warmth, I like when our skin touches, I like when he makes me laugh, I like when he comes close to me as he gets in bed, I like when he massages my feet.

 

This photographic experiment gave me the opportunity to accept myself and to exhibit my splendor and my vulnerability. What a magnificent journey!