Good morning everyone!
What an absolute pleasure it is to be standing here with you all.
When the first lockdown happened, I found my heart breaking for our seniors. The very people who have given us life, wisdom, and our world; were now locked out of it.
The idea to curate seniors images and snippets of their life stories came to me. A chance to pamper them, remind them of their beauty; celebrate their lives, and capture the highlights.
They have done so much for us; it is their turn to be honoured.
I was thrilled when Feros Care said they’d love to partner with me on this important project, thank you. I am also indebted to the wonderful makeup artists and photographers who worked with me, donating their valuable time.
Delivering on the idea was harder than expected. We had to deal with the challenges of Covid, border closures, and lockdowns.
Every time, everyone, rallied and juggled to make this become a reality.
The resulting Visible Me project is even more incredible that I could have imagined.
I feel so privileged to have glimpsed the fullness of these seniors lives. Through them, I feel like I’ve lived an additional 30 lives to my own. This has been horrifying, uplifting, and every other emotion in between.
Every story moved me.
It is the little, often unacknowledged moments of bravery, courage, ingenuity, confidence, and plain old hard work and determination that define lives.
I was surprised by common themes that kept repeating in the interviews:
I chose to have each senior speaking directly to you, when I wrote their stories, using their words, to create the idea of an impactful conversation. The highly artistic photos are designed to make you stop, curious, as to who each person is, and draw you into their story. They were also intended to allow the participants to see themselves in a new light.
It was clear everyone enjoyed participating in Visible Me.
Some people told me that taking part has changed and bolstered their lives.
One lady said, 'this has given me purpose, I haven't had hair or make up done in 20 years, it’s wonderful, it means so much to me'.
Another participant emailed to say:
“It was great working with you and the Feros Care team, and making me think and talk about thoughts that had been dormant for many years, and are now, no longer hidden”.
One son said, “you’ve captured the working-class man perfectly, it’s just wonderful. A real testament to him. He worked so hard”.
We have created a rich, amazing body of work. Capturing special moments for our participants and their families. We achieved our goal of celebrating each individual, but have also, created something of value for the whole community – a repository of resilience and wisdom.
Time with our loved ones is so precious, we should take that extra 5 minutes with them whenever we can.
I feel like everyone I interviewed is family now.
And thanks to them, I no longer fear ageing. Instead, I am inspired.
I hope you all feel as equally inspired when you read their stories.
Thank you
What an absolute pleasure it is to be standing here with you all.
When the first lockdown happened, I found my heart breaking for our seniors. The very people who have given us life, wisdom, and our world; were now locked out of it.
The idea to curate seniors images and snippets of their life stories came to me. A chance to pamper them, remind them of their beauty; celebrate their lives, and capture the highlights.
They have done so much for us; it is their turn to be honoured.
I was thrilled when Feros Care said they’d love to partner with me on this important project, thank you. I am also indebted to the wonderful makeup artists and photographers who worked with me, donating their valuable time.
Delivering on the idea was harder than expected. We had to deal with the challenges of Covid, border closures, and lockdowns.
Every time, everyone, rallied and juggled to make this become a reality.
The resulting Visible Me project is even more incredible that I could have imagined.
I feel so privileged to have glimpsed the fullness of these seniors lives. Through them, I feel like I’ve lived an additional 30 lives to my own. This has been horrifying, uplifting, and every other emotion in between.
Every story moved me.
It is the little, often unacknowledged moments of bravery, courage, ingenuity, confidence, and plain old hard work and determination that define lives.
I was surprised by common themes that kept repeating in the interviews:
- The importance of keeping your mind and body active
- Race, religion and wealth are personal matters, not the measure of a person
- The huge importance of family
- Respecting a good woman
- The fairly casual acknowledgements of hard times, whatever form they came in: war, domestic abuse, poverty.
- That when we dig deep, every single one of us can find resilience.
- To keep trying new things
- Several were disappointed in the lack of time given to them by their own family
- The lack of technological understanding has strong negative impacts on their lives
- And, unsurprisingly, everyone just wants to be acknowledged.
I chose to have each senior speaking directly to you, when I wrote their stories, using their words, to create the idea of an impactful conversation. The highly artistic photos are designed to make you stop, curious, as to who each person is, and draw you into their story. They were also intended to allow the participants to see themselves in a new light.
It was clear everyone enjoyed participating in Visible Me.
Some people told me that taking part has changed and bolstered their lives.
One lady said, 'this has given me purpose, I haven't had hair or make up done in 20 years, it’s wonderful, it means so much to me'.
Another participant emailed to say:
“It was great working with you and the Feros Care team, and making me think and talk about thoughts that had been dormant for many years, and are now, no longer hidden”.
One son said, “you’ve captured the working-class man perfectly, it’s just wonderful. A real testament to him. He worked so hard”.
We have created a rich, amazing body of work. Capturing special moments for our participants and their families. We achieved our goal of celebrating each individual, but have also, created something of value for the whole community – a repository of resilience and wisdom.
Time with our loved ones is so precious, we should take that extra 5 minutes with them whenever we can.
I feel like everyone I interviewed is family now.
And thanks to them, I no longer fear ageing. Instead, I am inspired.
I hope you all feel as equally inspired when you read their stories.
Thank you