Third age: Focus on strength of older women

WHEN photographer Kate Byrne turned 50, she reflected, and began to worry about the ageing process. What lay ahead for her?

Using her camera, she decided to find out.

Kate began to interview and photograph older women, who lived near her home in Howth, Co Dublin.

“The youngest was aged 80, but most were in their mid-80s and early 90s. I soon realised that women suffer much more through the ageing process than men do,’’ she says.

“And I realised that the ageing process is also associated with lots of horrible words like ‘deterioration’, ‘disease’ and ‘decline’. So I wanted to portray these women’s strength and independence. This was my only criterion — that they had these thoughts — almost as if they were the President of Ireland, and give me that look through the lens. To transfer that strength, and to really move away from the negativity around ageing. ’’

Her photographs are now being exhibited at the Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, as part of the annual Bealtaine festival, which celebrates older people and the arts, and takes place across the country in May.

The exhibition, titled ‘I am here, you are there’, shows bill- board size portraits of eight older women. Kate photographed them while they were wearing a plain white shirt and no-make up.

“They all feel their identity marginalised and compromised by their elderly years. The photographs are an attempt to further develop this notion, where self and identity is rendered visible. Their large scale ensures the viewer is directed to every blemish, wrinkle, stray hair and raised vein,’’ she says.

“You can’t walk away from the scale, emotionally or psychologically. There is nothing else to do but confront the picture, and you connect immediately with the eyes. In real life, you don’t stare at somebody while they stare back at you. That is what I wanted and why I called it I am here, you are there. ’’

Kate’s aim was to ensure that the viewer could not tell the women’s religion, job or lifestyle. All of their backgrounds are “incredibly different’’: one woman is an historian, another cooked meals-on-wheels in Howth “all her life’’; a third is a fisherman’s wife.

“I completely, and utterly, respected every single one of them. They were so sharp and so together. What I learnt from them was the importance of being confident and independent,’’ she says.

From May 4-29, the Highlanes Gallery will also show Kate’s video work, Painting a Mask, which features two women, one aged 15 and the other 81, discussing their lives and views on ageing.

“I was looking at two women at opposite ends of their lives, and I saw myself in the centre, looking at their thought process. But I juxtaposed their voices and images.

“So you are looking at the older woman putting on her make-up, but you have the thought process of the younger girl talking about what make-up to wear to the local disco,’’ she says.

“What transpired was that their thought process was actually far more similar than I would have ever anticipated. The young girl states that being 30 is old, yet that she wants to live to be 90. While the older lady is saying how much she loves life and that her main goal is to maintain independence.’’

The Highlanes Gallery will also hold special sessions throughout May for older people to discuss the exhibition, their views on ageing, and their identity.

* ‘I am here, you are there’ runs until June 15. Admission is free; www.highlanes.ie ; for further information contact Hilary Kelly/Siobhan Murphy 041-9803311