Karsten Thormaehlen

Traces of Love or the Secrets of Old Age




“Living means growing old. For the final stage of life, it means taking on the challenge over and over again and moving further into the unknown, step by step, in order to fulfill one’s mission. It is a daily effort. In doing so we leave behind traces of love that the coming generations can follow.” This is how it was described by the 102-year-old doctor Shigeaki Hinohara, whom Karsten Thormaehlen recently met in Tokyo.



Born in 1965 in Bad Kreuznach, Germany and living in Wiesbaden, he is nearly half as old as the people he portrays. He has been photographing elderly people for over 20 years. He cannot say exactly why he does it. Maybe it is because he was deeply affected by his time spent performing community service in a retirement home. Perhaps he would like to restore dignity to old age through his work as a photographer. Perhaps he would like to counter the current images of old age by creating photos that depict more than just poverty, loneliness or illness.



As a chronicler of a new image of old age, he has also been looking for the secrets of old age in Japan, Switzerland, Sardinia and the U. S.. The demographically inevitable and disproportionate increase in the percentage of older people in industrial countries while birth rates simultaneously decline should not just be perceived as a disadvantage, says Thormaehlen. Like no other age group, the senior generation is in the midst of undergoing a process of rapid change. To look at old faces is to glimpse our own future.



His first project was the ‘Centenarians’. The second book on the series, entitled Happy at Hundred, was published in 2011 by Kehrer Heidelberg. The installation, featuring portraits and quotes from centenarians, has now been travelling across Germany, Austria and Switzerland for over six years. The books and the exhibition have resonated all over the world. Thormaehlen’s portraits have appeared in many publications and made their way around the globe on blogs. The portrait of 102-year-old Erika E., which appears on the cover of the second picture book, was shortlisted for the prestigious ‘Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011’ and shown in the National Portrait Gallery in London. All of the portrait subjects have had similar experiences: They lived through two world wars, the destruction of their homeland, the division of Germany as well as its reunification. All of the images also have a certain beauty in common, one that comes with old age, a certain vulnerability, but above all, dignity. There is an extraordinary expressiveness in people’s faces that Thormaehlen brings to light in his portraits.



Thormaehlen continued his artistic and sociological confrontation with old age in his series ‘Silver Heroes’ – the book on this series was also published by Kehrer, in 2012. The collection of portraits of retired athletes inspired the World Health Organization (WHO) to launch a poster campaign. The project was nominated by Robert Bosch Stiftung for the German Senior Citizens’ Awards 2013. The series presents people who have the will to perform at their peak. They all answer the question, “What can be done in old age?” with a euphoric “Yes” to life. And so are the images in this series: dazzling, expressive, bold and optimistic.



“I want to inspire courage with my photos and show that beauty can be found in everything,” says Thormaehlen. His photography is a corrective measure in a society that still marginalizes old age, a protest against ageism and the repression of vulnerability and death. Text: Marc Peschke