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Media Currents
As a husband-and-wife documentary team, photographer Ed Kashi and I are always looking for compelling stories to cover. In 1995, a series of articles caught our attention. They forecast a society with more people over 55 than under 18 by midcentury, a phenomenon that promised to alter the face of American society. At the time we were discussing the implications of these articles, Ed was wrapping up the third in a series of National Geographic magazine assignments in the Middle East. He and I had completed a documentary project in Egypt, and we had just had our first child. We were eager to redirect our work back to America. As Ed has written in our new book, Aging in America: The Years Ahead (New York City: PowerHouse Books, 2003): "After nearly a decade of working around the world as a photojournalist, I began to feel a deep sense of responsibility to turn my camera toward my own society. I set about looking for one of the great themes of my time. . . . I wanted to find a theme that would allow me to explore the human condition through some of the important political and social issues of the day."
GERIATRIC PRISON WARDS
Among the subjects we covered were the campaign of a 76-year-old running for public office for the first time, a woman launching her modeling career in her 60s and the Retreads Motorcycle Club for older bikers. We also witnessed the struggles of Lakota Sioux elders trying to carry on their traditions while living in the poorest county in America and explored innovative solutions that are keeping elders out of nursing homes--solutions such as On Lok in San Francisco, which was the model for the Programs for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (pace). I have to confess that, like most people, Ed and I had preconceived notions about what it means to grow old, and we approached the issue with a somewhat fixed agenda. We had no idea that this wasn't merely the story of American elders, that it was also the story of the families and the caregivers who are on the frontlines of the age wave. What's more, we did not realize at the outset that we had taken on a subject so taboo that we would have to become advocates as much as journalists, fighting at every turn to gain attention for the issues we were covering. When Ed and I first started clipping articles, we found an overabundance of stories about 80-year-old skydivers and retirees who rock climb. Although these articles were inspirational, in our eyes they were part of the anti-aging obsession that preoccupies America. We learned that successful aging isn't the ability to out-do youth, but the maturity to embrace a new phase of life. The superseniors who skydive represent the privileged few, and Ed and I were determined to paint a more sober, realistic portrait. We wanted to expose both the unprecedented opportunities and the overwhelming demands--the dueling signatures of longevity.
TREMENDOUS ASSETS
Perhaps the most surprising discovery for Ed and me is that we live in an age-segregated society. Thanks to modern mobility and people's desire to choose intentional communities over extended families, the generations are relatively ignorant of each other. Ed and I had to face the fact that we, too, had fallen into the same trap. Between us, we had two surviving parents, both of whom lived thousands of miles away. We also became acutely aware that we had no older adults in our immediate circle and that our children were being cut off from an entire generation. This revelation proved to be one of the saddest ones of our work, reflecting a situation that is all too prevalent in the United States. As we delved deeper, we were shocked to realize how unprepared this society is for the legions of people approaching old age. Although Social Security and Medicare have made elders here more secure than ever before, the United States doesn't have an adequate plan for people as their physical and mental capacity decline. Forcing older people to spend down their assets so they can end up in a nursing home seems like a cruel reward after a lifetime of contribution. Ed and I witnessed over and over again that many of the needs of older adults are quite simple. Basic needs like grocery shopping, doing laundry and driving to the doctor's office can be huge hurdles that determine whether elders are living at home or being relegated to a long-term care facility--for those who can afford it.
POCKETS OF INNOVATION
During one of my early interviews with a woman named Virginia Magrath, she told me that old people feel invisible, as though they become ghosts long before they die. "It must be like when you're a child standing at the counter and the cashier helps everyone else before they help you," she explained. At the time, her husband was dying from a blood clot in his brain. Despite the fact that she was a retired nurse, the doctors spoke directly to her daughters. I would say the doctors ignored Virginia, but to ignore requires a conscious effort, implying that they had noticed her in the first place. Our goal through our work has been to make the Virginias in our midst visible so we can bring the parallel universe of elders back into the intergenerational fold. Ed and I started this project by identifying a major social issue and approaching it through an objective lens. Over time it became apparent to us that we were peering through the looking glass at our future selves, and the impact was revelatory.
OUR GREATEST CHALLENGE
Since 1995, our domestic clipping service has harvested three file drawers full of proof that society is indeed undergoing a transformation. These articles demonstrate a growing understanding--beyond supersenior stories--of what it means to grow old and how all of society is beginning to feel the impact. But we have a long way to go if we in the media are really going to serve the best interests of society and all the dedicated professionals who are confronting the demands of aging.
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