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A new photography project showcasing the beauty of older Australians is proving it’s never too late to be glamorous.
NSW photographer Shannon Smith is capturing senior citizens aged 80 and over and providing families with professional photographs of their loved ones.
“The Golden Age portraits as I call them are the opportunity to preserve the memories of a generation that really didn’t have much but really made the most of the situations that they were placed in,” Smith said.
The project is a labor of love for the Lake Macquarie-based professional.
“It was never about the money for me,” Smith said.
“I didn’t want anyone to miss out purely because their family wasn’t in the situation to be able to pay for it.
“That’s why I just took that out of the equation altogether.”
Smith said the project is a chance to share the stories of people with “so much substance” which makes the work “the most soul-satisfying work you could do”.
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“They have lived through some incredible times and they’ve had so little,” she said.
“If we don’t document it, that is gone once they leave this earth.
Smith is getting rave reviews from the nonagenarians who are blown away by their own portraits.
“I thought I might of been a bit too old … and then I thought ‘no, you never get too old’,” Esme said.
One of Smith’s other clients, 93-year-old Theresa, fled the Spanish Civil War for Australia in 1960 and has lived through challenging times.
She said this is one of the only times in her life she’s been treated like a princess
“I feel beautiful,” she said.
