adelaide ivánova

Senescence, when seen from outside, is very rarely beautiful - not as event, not as aesthetic category. Portraits from old people try, very often, not to show the present, but the past. In this series though, I tried, through staged and daily life photography, to play with intimacy and distance, trying to dismantle archetypes old people are often connected to. I used the body and body language to focus on what is possible, to focus on present days of a functioning old woman.

My grandmother, whose name is also Adelaide, is now 92 years and still struggles towards the future and the organization of her existence.  She was born on 1921, in Brazil, gave birth to 16 children, 14 of which have survived childhood. She has raised them mainly alone, selling cakes on the streets of her city, after her husband, who had a small grocery, went bankrupt. 

This series is an on-going project.