Photographer Robert Frank once said, “There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment.” Several recent photographic exhibits and works profiled below reveal just how true that is, especially when it comes to aging. These photographers have captured the human essence and the true and frank complexity of what our lives become as we go through our later years.  

As an example, check out the group photography exhibit now on display at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Massachusetts. Four different photographers, including neurologist and photographer Virgil DiBiase and Susan Rosenberg Jones, capture in their photographs such tender moments as the mental confusion of dementia and the devastating grief of becoming a widow/er. Likewise, in a new book entitled, Flight of Spirit: The Photographs of Anne Noggle, you will find the works of Anne Noggle, a pioneering female photographer considered the first to ever deeply explore in a bold and upfront way the aging process in women. You can read more about Noggle and her photographic work here.

Finally, for a beautiful, provocative and compelling portrait of modern older women, you need to see the work of photographer Angelika Buettner. While a successful commercial photographer, Buettner has also embarked on a multi-year project to portray in an honest and unretouched manner the nude images and statements of women aged 40-99, who have a variety of backgrounds and stories to tell. The work has become part of what Buettner calls “The I Am Movement” and includes a book of photographs, an Instagram account and a vision to document and photograph what Buettner calls the “ageless beauty” of older women, regardless of their shape, size, features or ethnicity. She has created a gorgeous mosaic of candid images that portray the true human condition of women, no matter their age. To drink in these images and find out more, click here.