Cnn
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What does privacy look like the elderly? There is no end to sex scenes and other hot contents with young people and unrelated, but after a certain age, popular culture largely attracts a white – or treats sex like a punchline.
Last year, the artist Marilyn Minister decided to change this, bringing together a group of men and women aged 70 and over in her New York studio to present a less seen from sex and relationships. In erotic and colorful images, the elders are stripped of lingerie or underwear; They kiss, kiss and caress themselves in the heat of the moment. The photographs have drawn our attention to challenge something that is still considered a taboo, showing moments of fun and loving pleasure.
“There is so much contempt for elderly sex. Even one of the models I worked with said:” Who wants to see all of this? “” Remember to sleep in a video call with CNN.
“My whole reflection process entered this area that we are pioneers,” she continued the shamelessly sexualized context. “No one has ever shot on people from affectionately, and with all kinds of elegance. And it was my goal – to make them very desirable.”
A handful of the images that followed were initially published in the New York Times magazine, accompanying a frank editorial function on sex lives. MINTRT now publishes the entire series in the next book “Elder Sex” and exhibited them at the New York Gallery LGDR. The exhibition, which opened in April, is its first solo exhibition in the city since the Brooklyn Museum set up its “Pretty / Dirty” retrospective in 2016, and offers highlights of its five decades, as well as other new workforce.
In “Elder Sex”, Minter used one of a signature aesthetic sound, which she explored in hyperrealist paintings and photographs: jewelry and closed compositions of sparkling bodies, apparently shown through the glass of a mirror or a steamed window. But despite its references as one of the most important and rugging artists today – and despite stars such as Lady Gaga and Lizzo posing for her – Minter could not find enough real couples ready to participate.
“We wanted (include) all breeds, all types of sex,” said Minter. “We had a lot of trouble getting models. I am 74 years old. I asked all my friends – in mixed relationships, in lesbian relationships – and none of them would. ”
In the end, MINTER threw actors as well as the few people who had accepted. She associated them in her studio, photographing them behind a frozen glass panel – a tip for obtaining the hot and scorching look without fighting the ephemerality of water vapor. During their filming, MINTER said that all of his models, which were as old as 89 years old, told him that they always had regular and pleasant sexual lives. Their feelings equaled the people interviewed for the New York Times Magazine article, which described the deepening of intimacy with their partners later in life, as well as learning to navigate and appreciate their needs as their bodies were aging.
Glind thinks that there is a feeling of freedom in sex later in life which, for many people, can take time to reach.
“When you are young and you have sex, it’s a little more performative than when you are 80 years old,” she said. As an elderly person, “you think”, it’s me. Take it or leave it. I’m just going to have fun. I’m not going to simulate anything here. »»
Mint recognizes that the sexual image and the self -image are busy for women of all ages – older women are rarely considered or taken seriously as having intimate needs, while for younger women, the sexual agency is often a walk on the tightrm – too much and you can be “excited and ashamed,” said Minter.
“When you are 25 years old, there is so much fear that young women have a sex agency-it’s just terrifying for people,” she said.
Marilyn Minister unveils scorching “shower” images
But the artist sees progress in who becomes considered desirable on our television screens, reflecting a wider change in full swing in cultural attitudes related to sex. She underlined photographs in People Magazine comparing the characters of “The Golden Girls” and “Sex and the City”, who are the same age at the time of the latter’s restart on HBO Max (which belongs to the mother company of CNN, Warner Bros. Discovery). “The 1950s are very different in the 2020s!” A legend exclaimed.
Although “the golden girls” also complain in romance and intimacy – and has been widely visible as remarkably positive on sex for its time – there is a striking contrast in the way women in the fifties are presented in the two shows.
“I thought,” Okay, that’s why it’s different, “she said. “Number: people live much longer, and they are healthier … Number two: there is this thing called Viagra.” Minter laughed, adding: “But who retired at 54? To a house in Florida with three other ladies? What?”
She hopes that “eldest sex” will not only serve as a visual reference that is necessary for what older age can look like, but will also resonate for people who feel their desires – and their lives – are neglected.
“This gives permission to people who feel ashamed of their sexual desires,” she said. “I want it to give them permission to explore this and to erase shame.”
“”Eldest sexPublished by Jbe Books, is available now.
