WE’RE LIVING LONGER. It’s official. By 2050, one third of the world’s population in the developed regions of the world will be over 60. One third is a very large slice of the pie in consumer terms, yet older people continue to voice their concerns and understandable frustration at being the invisible members of our communities and our societies.

My most recent project began looking at the invisibility older people feel as they age, which comes in many forms. Being a photographer, I chose to engage with the fashion photograph and the whole area of fashion in older people. The youthful, beautiful and almost superhuman body is generally the model for fashion photography. I wanted to recreate some fashion photographs, replacing the younger model with an older one.

Having an artist residency in Draíocht allowed me to work with a group of older people in Dublin 15 to explore this concept of whether older people abandon fashion or whether the fashion industry abandons older people. The project evolved in a very organic way, which the participants themselves helped shape.

In a few instances, as part of the many conversations we had, many had expressed the need to be photographed as they are, in their own fashion. When someone poses for a fashion shoot, a new identity is portrayed to the viewer; their own identity masked in make-up, hair and costume. I therefore asked each participant to chose a location that was relevant to him or her and to wear something they would wear to a special occasion. This allowed them control every detail of how they would be represented, unlike the fashion recreations. For these, they chose a look from a series of fashion images from the 20s to the 90s, but had no input into the clothes, hair, make-up or location.

A video piece, shot in the same location as their own individual shots with their own fashion, introduces the real person, where three participants discuss their own personal views on the subject, and on ageing in general.

At the beginning of the project, Lilian Harris conveyed to the group a story about how she had to cope with her ongoing ageing reflection through mirrors, which was a feeling shared by a lot of other people. This inspired a series of photographs where each person engages with their own reflection, through their own mirror.

So, does the fashion industry along with all the other retailers ignore the over 60s, and can they continue to do so? Out of a surveyed carried out as part of my research, 28 per cent usually stick to one or two shops, whereas 61 per cent said that they tend to buy clothes from more than two shops. While they don’t quite ignore the over 60s, the choice of retailers for the older demographic is certainly less than the younger demographic, and according to a participant Monica-Ann Dunne, designers simply seem to ignore body shape when it comes to the older woman,
leaving the consumer with very little choice. She said:

This uniform that’s now presented for older people is so lacking in imagination or creativity. It’s either trousers and a skirt, and straight from the shoulder with no waistline, no hint of any body shape at all. Supposedly being kind to older people to cover their lumps and bumps, but not really. Not really.

Personally, one of the most enjoyable parts about working with older people is that they don’t really care what other people think, within reason of course. It seems as we age, we lose the barriers we are so fond of in our younger years.

Maybe it’s about proving ourselves as young adults, as achievers, as mothers and fathers, as businessmen and women. From my experience working with the people on this project, there were very few barriers. People were open, honest and frank in their discussions with me. 46 per cent of the people surveyed agreed that they care less about what other people think of them now than they did when they were younger. 35 per cent never really cared in the first place. This is a nice statistic, and one we should look forward to as we age.

In terms of my own experience, I can honestly say that it has been made richer and healthier because of these discussions. Perhaps I’m now well equipped to deal with the new man in the mirror, who will no doubt make his presence known, any day now.

My blog, which tracked the project from the beginning, can be found at garvangallagher.wordpress.com. The exhibition is called My Way and is on at Draíocht in Blanchardstown, in the downstairs gallery until 5 November.

Here’s a selection of the portraits on show: