Age in the Frame (2018—)
By
Deborah Ann
'The Armful' - a visual response to the lived experiences of ageing from recorded conversations with participants in the Age In The Frame project. Image credit: Deborah Ann.
Initiated at the end of 2018, an ongoing project exploring ageing from the ground-up, seeking unmediated voices from a diverse range of older (60+) and younger people (15-18 years, initially) whose voices are faint behind longevity policy agendas.
In an initial small scale study, a diverse range of men and women of (60+ years) were asked their views on ageing and their experiences of becoming older, in recorded, face-to-face conversations. My approach was to hold human-centred conversations without any preconceived ideas or agenda, so that participants were comfortable expressing their views. Young people (15-18 years initially) were also asked their views of old people and ageing.
In researching for the project I noticed that young people are seldom asked their views about this, although theirs is a world in which people are generally living longer. As it turned out young people were keen to take part and contribute their views. One 16 year old said: “I wanted to share my views on it. I thought it was interesting that someone wanted to do a study on old age and not on something like feminism or something like that”.
In addition to the conversations I took photographs of the hands of older people rather than photos of faces; the stories that hands tell fascinates me. I photographed them in such a way as to allude to cave hand paintings. I’m not a photographer, so for me these photographs are another route to connecting with the unique stories of old age and ageing as described by the participants. With the younger people I surprise them at the end of the conversation by asking them to make a quick 30 second drawing of an old person. With no time to think these quick images are immediate, unedited visuals of how they perceive old people. I work in paper and spray paint making constructed paintings.
As an artist my contribution is to respond to all the documentary material of the project through the visual image. This collaborative approach where an artistic response is generated directly from peoples’ experiences, allows for a different route to raising awareness of such a central social issue. Artists are not part of the debates on ageing and longevity and yet they hold some of the most powerful tools for raising awareness, asking difficult questions, challenging perceptions and contributing to change.
I was cheered by this remark from a young participant: “When you think about current affairs you don’t really think about old people, you think about climate change, sexism, racism, all this stuff, you never really think about old people, so I thought it would be quite interesting to see what this is all about...and I’m pleasantly surprised”. Some outcomes and learnings: people were keen to participate and contribute to the project and reportedly enjoyed the experience of talking about this complex issue, although it was something of a challenge initially to get older men to talk.
Both old and young people said that they hadn’t really considered the topic before and they found the conversations thought provoking and affirming. The stories and views which emerged are touching, funny, thoughtful, rebellious, poignant, cliched, sad, accepting and so much more. In fact the material was initially so overwhelming in many respects that it took me some time to find my way through it and for the images to emerge. I didn’t realise how time consuming the project would be and the complexities it would raise both on the ‘documentary’, experiential, technical and the image making side of things; but it’s an invigorating way of working and I’m so pleased that the material I work in – paper - has proved such an apt medium for the subject.
Work around the project continues in it’s various aspects, and a second phase of the study is being considered. Covid lockdown has given me the opportunity to really concentrate at last on the image making. I give updates on how things are going through posts on my website, social media postings (instagram and twitter) and send update emails to the participants from time to time. And I offer talks on the project (brought to a halt by covid – although I’m looking into recording some further reflections on the project for my website). Hopefully some kind of exhibition bringing it all together will be possible some time in the future.
More information: https://www.deborah-ann.co.uk/posts/
“Ageing is an unsexy subject. Many would think it boring and best ignored. If it’s dealt with at all visually it tends to emphasise the physical effects of ageing. But it’s a central part of the human condition. It’s about life when one is further along the plank - I’m walking that very plank myself. So what’s it like to grow old – what’s it really like and how can an artist convey this? ”
“This project is exploratory without making assumptions, and has an artistic dimension to it; it’s much more engaging and interesting and so I wanted to do it for me.”
“I wanted to do the study because I believe 10% of me wanted to get out of steeplechase today and because everyone is going to live longer and should be thinking about ageing and because his parents will be ageing.”
