Capturing a Lifetime
Commercial photographer Troy Aossey does portraiture, but not the typical kind. Aossey became interested in capturing seniors on film while on a photo-shoot for Phoenix Magazine at the Westward Ho. "I don't have a real clear idea about age, I think I do this because I have that confusion." said Aossey. Fight Ageism interviewed Aossey because of the openness and honesty of his work.
After shooting the VFW series Aossey found out that the new owner of the hall fired the band that was playing there for years and has been renting out the hall for more profitable venues. With the disregard for the Veterans of WWII, which are rapidly dwindling, no one seems to care that their local hangouts are being replaced.
In another shoot with the Sun City West Jazzy Poms Aossey contemplates: "An elderly cheerleader challenges our cultural attitudes that revere reproductiveness and youthful good looks and our expectations that older people are, or ought to be, asexual or socially dormant...For every Sun City West Jazzy Pom there are hundreds, or more likely thousands, of older people who because of society's pressure cannot do what the Sun City West Jazzy Poms do for us — defy aging by putting on the uniform and kicking away our outdated cultural attitudes toward the elderly."
He says of his subjects that, "their freeness and willingness to be photographed in a certain way has allowed me to have a sense of humor about things and to become a little bit more brave." What a lesson for us all.
Above images by Troy Aossey, property of Troy Aossey, © copyright 2006, all rights reserved.
