A Photographic Study of a Selfie-Obsessed Senior

Why does a 55-year-old woman take selfies? Standing barefoot and alone in front of the bathroom mirror holding her smart phone in one hand, turning it this way and that way, searching for that one angle that will best reflect her good side? Does she seriously even have a good side anymore? And if she raises her arm strategically high above her head and looks slightly to the left to give the appearance that this is totally NOT staged, she can avoid that awful double chinage that sometimes shows up in pictures that other people take of her.

If she pulls her hair—which she has grown out long again perhaps as a means of holding on to a memory of her youth—she can poof it up on both sides of her face like Stevie Nicks and hide those telltale, age-revealing crow’s feet. She can take an arty shot of her eye, loose strands of hair falling around it...that's always fun, or how about a cropped shot of her Ray Ban’s for a little extra ultra-coolness? Then, when the selfie session is over and she flips back through the images, she has the ability to add hipsteresque filters with names like willow and toaster and sutro and Kelvin and Sierra and X-Pro II that enhance details, change the lighting, intensify, color or soften the lines in a multitude of ways—all designed to make her look younger and trendier, and perhaps somehow make others believe that she is still relevant as an older woman living within a society that says otherwise?

The reality is she is no longer thin and wrinkle-free and twenty two. She is a senior citizen now and sadly, despite a lifetime of adventures & experiences and knowledge; years of growing up & changing & creating & learning; of finally reaching a point of mostly figuring it all out, no matter what she does; no matter how many selfies she takes, I-N-V-I-S-I-B-L-E...is what she has become.