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This short film shows footage from the Look at Me! Images of Women & Ageing Exhibition and captures some of the reactions of the participants to seeing their images on the walls. The film offers a neat summary of the project as well as encapsulating some of its wider impacts.
A group of older women met in a series of six day long workshops, led by Rosy Martin. They were invited to make, then talk about, their own alternative photographic diaries on age and ageing. By using phototherapeutic techniques to reframe how each looked at her own narratives of self and ageing, scenarios were chosen to re-enact. Working in pairs, the photographer offered a therapeutic gaze of nurturance and permission giving to the sitter, who performed her stories, using her chosen clothes and props. Each narrative included images of transformation and self-nurturance. Then the roles were exchanged. Images which challenge stereotypes of ageing were created, and the whole process enabled each participant to find ways to transform her views of herself.
The art work shown in this film emerged from a closed interactive-style experiential art group which met for 16 hours over an eight-week period. Facilitated by a registered art therapist (who is also trained in social science research methods), the group utilised techniques from analytic art psychotherapy. In terms of the overarching research aims of the project, women were active in the production of collective knowledge, as well as active in interrogating their own, very particular, feelings about the process of ageing. This included examining their feelings about media and cultural representations of ageing women. One of the benefits of participation may be heightened self-consciousness, but participation potentially involved more than mere self-reflection, as through the process of art-making participants are arguably constituting and re-constituting themselves as part of the process.
This is one of four films documenting the Images of Women & Ageing project, based at the University of Sheffield. The Green Estate volunteers don’t normally meet together as a group so photographer Laura Pannack worked with the women individually to identify the places where they felt happy and at ease. They also used project cameras to take photos of their everyday lives and these snaps complement Laura’s more formal portraits.
This is one of four films documenting the Images of Women & Ageing project, based at the University of Sheffield. The women at Guildford Grange Extra Care Scheme spent several weeks with professional photographer Monica Fernandez photographing their everyday lives. Out of this came conversations about the ubiquity of ‘before and after’ photos and the fact that they felt that the ‘afters’ were often worse than the ‘befores’. In keeping with their statement that they are “too old to take ourselves seriously”, they decided to take this to extremes to show how ridiculous it was and Monica was detailed to provide a range of props and costumes. Each woman decided how and where she was photographed.
A short documentary which discusses the research undertaken by the Stress and Immunity project. The film was shown at AgeWell at the University of Birmingham, 24th September 2010.
