Retirement Project
While millions of people struggle with what their respective retirements may look like I’ve begun to record photographic portraits and stories to serve as a “field guide” of retiree experiences. I embarked on this project for two reasons. First, to support my father and father-in-law and provide a guide that includes the face of retirement and their underlying stories; and secondly, to gauge the possibility of retirement in today’s society. Who can retire in our society? Who can’t? What are people’s thoughts about retirement and/or plans for being able to achieve retirement? Is there a difference geographically and/or in different social or cultural groups?
I also photograph individuals who are years away from retirement to try and discover their thoughts and dreams about their own futures. I photograph younger individuals and ask about their goals and planning for retirement to see if it looks different from previous generation’s retirees. Younger individuals who are thinking ahead to retirement are a group that I can revisit years from now to see if their outlook or motivations have changed.
This project is motivated by curiosity. I photograph so I can learn from and about retirement experiences and thoughts first-hand. All of the individuals in my photographs impart wisdom and reflect on the successes and disappointments of their own experiences to create a greater shared experience. With this project I place appearances with experiences and maintain how individual retirement can feel while exposing stories that reflect society in this relatively common social event. Each person experiences, or wishes they could experience, retirement in their own way but by viewing my photographs each individual willl feel some reassurance in knowing others have negotiated similar terrain and uncertainty. |
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