The anti-aging market of cosmetics and personal care is a booming $71.7 billion industry. Companies tirelessly advertise products that promise to make skin younger-looking, more supple and less wrinkled. And as consumers, we nod our heads in approval and fork over our hard-earned pay.
But one photographer wants to buck that obsession by showing that you can be beautiful at any age.
“My main goal was taking portraits of seniors to highlight their beauty and wisdom and to help them gain confidence,” said Erika Shallcross, owner of New York Portrait Company and the artist behind the upcoming photo exhibit at the Andrew Freedman Home, “Made in The Bronx.”
Funded by a grant from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and the Bronx Council on the Arts , the photographic display will feature 40 portraits of adults over the age of 65 from three senior centers across the Bronx – Riverdale Senior Services (RSS), Betances Senior Center in Mott Haven and Mid-Bronx Senior Citizens Council near Yankee Stadium. The tightly framed headshots in color and black and white focus on the nuances and idiosyncrasies of each face while accentuating the years of experience and wisdom behind the subjects’ eyes.
“In my brain, I’m still 30,” said 75-year-old Susan Guzman, a 15-year member of RSS. “It’s when I look in the mirror that I realize I’m not 30 anymore.”
Guzman sports a short, silver hairdo and a warm smile in her portrait. At RSS, she helps facilitate a writing workshop and leads an art-making class; a natural fit given her 20-plus years as a New York City public school teacher. Originally from Westchester, Guzman has been living in Riverdale since she got married in 1984. She has seen the neighborhood change over the decades and what is most noticeable to her is the replacement of small homes by high-rise buildings.
Shallcross explains that one doesn’t necessarily need to be born somewhere to be molded and influenced by their environment.
“I found a lot of the people weren’t necessarily born in the Bronx, but some of them have been here for 45 years and that’s a long time,” said Shallcross, who is originally from New Jersey but has lived in Riverdale for the last 16 years — the only place her 13-year-old daughter calls home. “The person you are today has been shaped by where you’ve been living and what your community is.”
The exhibit will be up for just one day, on Saturday, Dec. 16, from 2p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Andrew Freedman Home, located at 1125 Grand Concourse. Opened in 1924 at the behest of Freedman’s will — the affluent and once principal owner of the former New York Giants baseball team — the historic New York City landmark was originally built as a retirement home for the wealthy who had lost their fortunes.
Today, the space is an artist hub, but its history is befitting of a photo series on aging beauty.
Despite the exhibition’s 5-hour lifespan, the project was more than a year in the making and traces its origins to a separate photo project by Shallcross – “The Ageless Campaign” shot at the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House on Manhattan’s upper east side. Shallcross was surprised to find that many of those that sat for that project had not been photographed in more than 10 years, others as much as 20. That reality struck a chord with Shallcross and inspired this new endeavor.
In addition to the portraits, there will be also an audio element. While prepping each person to get their photos taken, Shallcross engaged them in conversations throughout the process resulting in deep talks about where they’re from, who they are and what they’ve seen over the course of their lives. These interviews will be presented in the form of QR codes that visitors can scan and listen to giving another layer to the exhibit.
After the show comes down, the portrait subjects get to take their photo home with them and admire the beauty within themselves.
“You can be beautiful at any age,” Shallcross stressed. “Wear what you want to wear. Do your makeup how you want to do your makeup — even if it doesn’t fit society’s vision for you.”
This article was updated on Dec. 7 at 9:44 a.m.
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Reach ET Rodriguez at etrodriguez317@gmail.com. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
