What it means to be old

An extraordinary new book of photographs captures the diversity of America's elderly -- the giddy newlyweds, ballroom dancers, road-trippers, as well as the neglected and infirm.

By Ed Kashi and Julie Winokur

Dec 9, 2003 | A shriveled man wearing running shorts and sneakers gracefully pole-vaults at the Senior Olympics. A 58-year-old woman in a thong spreads her legs in a wide split at the Miss Exotic World pageant. An elderly veteran, who suffers from arthritis, high blood pressure, and the aftereffects of a stroke, stands in his kitchen while his son swaddles him in a diaper. These are just a few of the bold, unflinching images in "Aging in America: The Years Ahead," a new book by photographer Ed Kashi and writer/producer Julie Winokur.

By mid-century there will be more Americans over 55 than under 18 -- a startling demographic shift that will have huge social, economic and cultural implications. With this in mind, Kashi and Winokur spent seven years traveling across the United States recording the stories and pictures of a segment of society that is often invisible: the aged. "We wanted to dispel myths about growing old," says Winokur. "Because too often the elderly are portrayed as caricatures rather than complex individuals."

Loners of America

"I believe we are the 'I' generation," says Yvonne Gardner, 69. She is on her way to an RV rally with the Loners of America, a club for single seniors. The Loners have three rules: you must love to travel, you must have some type of RV and you must be avowedly single. According to the bylaws, anyone who displays "coupling behavior" is out of the club.

"Most all of us got married relatively young," says Yvonne. "Then we had the children, so we always had to be giving and attentive to them. Then the children moved out and when we lost our mate, all of a sudden, we're all alone and it's the first time in our lives that we've ever been able to just think about us. I don't have to tell anybody what time I'm going to get up. If I want spaghetti for breakfast, I can have spaghetti for breakfast ... with garlic in it," explains Gardner.

As Gardner prepares her rig for a long day on the road, she says, "I still feel 45 or 50 or something. I haven't reached 'old.' I guess old to me is infirmity, when you can't do things and anywhere in between is not really old, it's aging or something like that."

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