Jessica
Chornesky '85 Exhibits her Photographs 70Up: New York Women
in Their Prime at the Museum of the City of New York,
March 8 – July 6
70Up:
New York Women in Their Prime, an exhibit of twenty-one
color photographs by Barnard alumna Jessica Chornesky ‘85,
will be on exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York from
March 8 – July 6, 2003. Ms. Chornesky, whose work has
appeared in TIME, The New York Times, Elle, The Los Angeles
Times, and Rolling Stone, will present a talk in
the exhibition at 2 p.m. on opening day, March 8.
The
photographs in 70Up feature women over the age of 70
who were either born in New York City or came here to make
their mark, including Kitty Carlisle Hart and Angela Lansbury,
La MaMa Experimental Theatre founder Ellen Stewart, civic
leader and activist Elinor Coleman, and lobbyist and founder
of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) Mathilde
Krim, Ph.D.
Other women featured in the exhibition have not sought public
recognition. They are quiet heroines – grandmothers who
raise their grandchildren, volunteers who serve their communities,
or women who must work in order to survive. These women are
being helped to meet those challenges by the community partner
in this City Partners exhibition, the Burden Center for the
Aging.
Excerpts from interviews conducted by photographer Jessica
Chornesky accompany the photographs, providing visitors with
insight into her subjects’ attitudes toward their own
aging.
In the words of Mathilde Krim: "I was most vigorous when
I was 50. When I was 30, I could very easily dance all night,
and go back to the lab the next morning. I couldn’t do
that now. But, when I was 30 I was also easily intimidated,
very shy, and I felt awkward in some social situations. I
lost that by the age of 40, and by the time I was 50 I felt
really confident, calm, and feeling I could take it... It
was a wonderful feeling. It comes with age. And I still have
it. I feel very comfortable. ‘Je suis bien dans ma peau,’
as we say in French: ‘I feel well in my skin.’"
In
the mid-1990’s, Chornesky conducted a month-long photography
workshop with Muslim refugee children in Bosnia. While living
in the refugee camp, she photographed the elders in the camp.
She has also compiled a body of work documenting women over
80 as they prepare to become United States citizens. She conceived
the 70Up project out of a desire to re-frame how we
perceive women’s aging by presenting bold and positive
imagery and delivering the message that, "Our elders
are not a separate species, but people like ourselves, only
later in life."
Chornesky’s 70Up project was featured in the Fall
2002 issue of Barnard magazine. More information on
the project can also be found at http://www.70up.org.
The
photographs in 70Up feature women over the age of 70
who were either born in New York City or came here to make
their mark, including Kitty Carlisle Hart and Angela Lansbury,
La MaMa Experimental Theatre founder Ellen Stewart, civic
leader and activist Elinor Coleman, and lobbyist and founder
of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) Mathilde
Krim, Ph.D.
In
the mid-1990’s, Chornesky conducted a month-long photography
workshop with Muslim refugee children in Bosnia. While living
in the refugee camp, she photographed the elders in the camp.
She has also compiled a body of work documenting women over
80 as they prepare to become United States citizens. She conceived
the 70Up project out of a desire to re-frame how we
perceive women’s aging by presenting bold and positive
imagery and delivering the message that, "Our elders
are not a separate species, but people like ourselves, only
later in life."