Ageing Gracefully

"German photographer Karsten Thormaehlen has photographed some of the most gorgeous people and places in the world. He's traveled to exotic locales and captured high-end fashion and luxurious goods with his lens. But for his new book, Thormaehlen chose extremely old people. "Aging Gracefully: Portraits of People Over 100" (Chronicle Books, 2017) features 52 insightful images of people from around the world who have hit the century mark.

"Since I’ve worked for many years in the beauty industry as an art director for luxury goods and cosmetic brands, I know what it takes to achieve 'perfect beauty.' It’s almost impossible! Like reaching 'absolute zero' or 'squaring the circle,' " Thormaehlen tells MNN. "I’m convinced true beauty comes from self awareness."

Thormaehlen says very old people look at photography in a completely different way.

"Being photographed is and has been something special in the past, only performed on special events, and on certain stages of one’s life: baptism, wedding, first child, all generations together, anniversaries etc.," he says. "Back than photographing was a complicated issue, it was expensive — and always very sad if the photo, which you saw days or weeks later for the first time, didn’t come out properly."

He says his centenarian subjects seem to find pleasure in the experience.

"They give me, the photographer, the impression they enjoy the attention, being photographed. It’s fun for them."

Thormaehlen found his subjects in many different ways. Some he discovered through people who had seen his work, some through their grandchildren and some through advertisements or by talking to managers of resident homes. Some he found through online searches.

For example, Dr. Olivia Hooker of White Plains, New York, (pictured below) was one of the first African American women to join the U.S. Army. As a child, her home was ransacked by the Ku Klux Klan during the 1921 riots in Tulsa. "I still don't know why they bothered to burn up a little girl's doll clothes, but they did," she told the Wall Street Journal, which Thormaehlen quotes in his book.

When Thormaehlen photographed Hooker, he noted that the walls in her home are filled with diplomas and greetings from the Clintons, the Bushes and the Obamas.

Talking to so many wise, witty people, Thormaehlen found there was one thing they all had in common:

"I learned from almost everybody that they love living, 100 percent. They don’t think about dying, but if it happens it won’t be a problem."

~ Mary Jo DiLonardo