When I’m Sixty-Four
A new photographic series
There’s a moment, right after a shower, that might be the best moment of the day — clean, warm, hopeful. Then you catch yourself in a full-length mirror. That the two happen back to back, every time, is a cruel irony, and this new series lives in the irony between the two.
These new works are self-portraits, shot on iPhone, taken moments after a shower, day or evening. A towel, most often, will be included. It is straight photography, single frame, no collaging, no compositing, no full moons added to the scene. The editing stays within iPhone tools, and it’s one exception from reality: it leans into heightened, saturated color — a Willy Wonka bright palette used not for performance, but to carry the interior emotion of the moment.
The premise is documenting an aging, queer body as it actually is, in that specific moment — clean and guarded, caught between motion and pose.
The title comes from the obvious place — the Beatles line about being needed, being fed, growing old. There’s an Irish gloom underneath this project — that is countered by my French ancestors’ determination to remain as beautiful as possible. I’m working with a trainer. I’m paying attention to my skin. I’m thinking about facelifts I can’t afford. None of this is separate from the project.
It is the project.
