By Margaret Maccoll
Are women over 55 socially invisible? This is the question photographer Giselle Peters asked when she and fellow photographer Phil Jackson put together a collection of images of women over 55 years of age to give some exposure to the group largely ignored by society.
She said a recent article on the subject inspired her to embark on the arts project to explore notions of age and beauty.
With a mother she describes as “a real 70s woman” who “did whatever she liked” including at one time “running off with a tiger trainer”, Gisells wasn’t previously aware of the treatment of older women.
Giselle posted a notice on Noosa Community Noticeboard Facebook page, calling for women to be involved in the project she titled The Beautiful Boiler Brigade.
But she wasn’t prepared for the overwhelming response that followed.
“I had 250 likes and multiple shares,” Giselle said. “I was completely inundated.”
On Sunday, Giselle and Phil of business Duke and Gypsy gathered 35 women for a photo shot.
Giselle said she had been surprised and inspired by the women’s stories and comments and the exhibition would be as much about the words as the images.
“One of the women told Giselle ‘you’re definitely invisible over 50. I could walk down the street with my clothes inside out and no one would notice. In fact, I did that,” she said.
“It’s not such a bad thing to be invisible,” another told her.
Another said when she’s ignored in dress shops she wants to say, “I might be an old woman, but we’re the ones with the money”.
One woman who told Giselle, ‘you should be whoever you want to be’ wanted to be photographed wearing only some lovely shells. So she was.
Giselle hopes to turn the photos into an exhibition or book.
