Photos of people who have lived in three centuries
Photographer Mark Story took photos of people who were born in the 19th century and are still alive in the 21th Century. My own grandmother comes close to making it. She'll be 107 in April.
Link (Via Ursi's blog)The photographs for this portrait series were taken in various locations around the world between 1987 and 2005.
The Gerontology Research Group estimates there are 250,000 centenarians (people 100 years and older) currently living in the world. In rare instances, people live to 110 years and beyond, inspiring a new demographic label: supercentenarian. The Gerontology Research Group, through rigorous investigation of records, acknowledges about 65 supercentenarians, and estimates that about 350 are alive worldwide today.
The idea to photograph people who have lived in three centuries evolved over the course of the project. First, I was simply interested in taking portraits of people who appear worn beyond their years by living extraordinarily hard lives. Those experiences drew me to centenarians, and on to supercentenarians and their stories.
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That should be born in 19th and still alive in 21st, right?
In general people get old because they expect to. If we expect to get stronger as we pass through time aging is a wonderful challenge. Take a look at the Toltec attitude toward life.
People get old because of their genes, not their outlook.
@Hyperkine, Yes thank you, I think we all understand what aging means. I think it's rather narrow minded though to believe that outlook and emotional/mental well being has no affect on the body. If you are of the opinion that aging means you are already decaying and therefore should shut yourself in, no longer exercising, eating properly, or enjoying the years you have left, then what are you living for? You're more likely to "give up the ghost". The will to live is incredibly important, any doctor or scientist can tell you that.
-Joker
I want to be the first person to fuck in 3 centuries. come on science, make it happen.
I'm not sure why she lived this long, but my great-grandmother lived to be 106. Like the people in the photo project, she lived 1895-2001.
It's awe-inspiring to think of everything she saw in those years.
#3 wanta bet ????
Is it just me, or the portraits all look like the photographer just pressed their faces into a scanner and pressed "Scan" ?
I'm with FLTNDBOAT. People die because they expect to die, because they're ready to die, because they're tired of living, all their friends are dead, etc. I used to live next to a nursing home. All the nice ones were dead in a year. All the mean ones (who frequently stole the nice ones' food) lived to be 100. Attitude gives you +/- 20 years.
Yeah, I agree too. Death is all in our heads, man. All those billions and billions of people who died before me? Weak-willed suckers.
People, people - we are missing the obvious scientific conclusion here, based on the physical evidence available. Clearly, the more you look like a pirate, the longer the live.
I recently saw a rebroadcast of A Century of Living http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0308096/
I was enormously impressed by the profound optimism that each of the centenarians represented there had. They were also in the main some tough old crocs and birds. The quote I found most powerful which I'll paraphrase here was a response to the question,'Compared to the past how do you feel about the present?' To which the woman replied, "Oh it's heaven. All you hope and dream for realized."
I expect that despite current widespread fear, the future is bright and amazing and I can barely wait to experience it.
These photos would make amazing sculpture references, might be time to break out the sculpey and see if I can do any of them justice =)
@EDGORE
aarrr matey, i be agreein wit'chu
but seriously, outlook has something to do with it, my grandfather lived for 14~15 years on a third heart (first failed, second rejected) because i wanted too, it was only when his kidneys kicked it and he had to go on dialysis that he gave up and died in peace in his own home. he was sick and tired of being sick and tired after dialysis, before that he was more active then i sometimes am.
Several of them are HOBOS! OMG
@All
I had one Great-Aunt who was approx 112 when she passed and one who was approx 107. My grandmother lived to 97 in her own home, under her own power. My mother just passed away before Christmas at the age of 72, she had horrible emphysema, some sort of brain tumor, and finally passed due to complications related to a surgery she had in 1970. I fully expect and intend to live to be 110+, even if I have to be a little grumpy about it. :P
Good genes, good luck...don't get run over by a truck. I wonder what happens to stem cells when they are injected into your skin? Would it rejuvinate and area? They seem to rejuve heart tissue and brain tissue.
This really reminds me of my great-grandmother, who lived to 101, but died over a decade ago. What amazed me was the fact that she actually remembered the reign of Queen Victoria. Thanks for reminding of her!
I had an aunt who almost made it. She was born in 1899, and died in late 2000.
At a glance, I thought that those were Drew Friedman caricatures.
sorry - those are really bad photos. was it really necessary to use such harsh lighting, unflattering high contrast, b/w film? was the artist trying to make them look like monsters? if so they did a good job. these are very unrealistic distorted images. people are soft, in an environment, a little out of focus, and in color...what is the artist saying here with the manipulation of these image characteristics? the artist has intentionally made these noble humans look very ugly.......
(reference fashion magazines which use filters and color to make people look more inviting and attractive...not harsh and cold)
@#21
I agree a little bit-- just looking at the thumbnails, I thought the post was going to be about Halloween masks.
However, I can also see the point of the high contrast black and white. The point of the series wasn't to show how beautiful they were-- that certainly comes out in (most of) their stories. But from the artist statement (also quoted above)
"First, I was simply interested in taking portraits of people who appear worn beyond their years by living extraordinarily hard lives."
There are certainly some "younger" people in the photo set (one guy in his 40s), but the centenarians, I guess are definitely worn, er, "appropriately" for their years?
Maybe Story forgot his focus, but I think the pictures are still interesting and thought-inspiring.