Over the course of 15 years, Ellen Warner—American photojournalist, portrait photographer and author—interviewed and photographed women from different cultures about life after age 50. These women ranged from an author and translator in Connecticut, to a sacred healer in Indonesia, a doctor in Saudi Arabia, a retired cook in Antigua, and the first French woman TV anchor.
These photos will be on display at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., part of a solo art exhibition titled, “The Second Half: Forty Women Reveal Life After Fifty,” on view from Sept. 30 to Oct. 29, 2022.
“The Second Half” presents Warner’s analog black and white photographs accompanied by excerpts of the women’s interviews. Intimate and frank, Warner’s portraits reflect the aesthetics, traditions and landscapes of their subjects’ environments—gnarled apple trees, bookshelves, gilded mirrors, stucco city blocks — and the histories they hold. Spanning decades and cultures, Warner’s portraits and interviews celebrate the wisdom, resiliency and joy of women in their second half of life.
The exhibition is presented by the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis and co-sponsored by the Brandeis University Press, publisher of The Second Half: Forty Women Reveal Life After Fifty.
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