ABOUT THE WORK

Being a modest person with a pinch of vanity, I could not have imagined I would pose for a picture without clothes to cover my aging body. But when Nancy told me about her vision for this project, I could not agree quickly enough. Going against the cultural grain, she did not want to photograph youthful beauty. Instead, she used scars, stretch marks, folds and lumps to reveal the stories of women who birth children, endure disease and enjoy worldly pleasures.
-Anonymous

gorgeous ruined temples
wilted flowers still vivid
tear-trailed-carved arms and legs
ancient big-bellied goddesses
     sagging from birthing
     sagging from loving                      

-Barbara Schmitz
Author of WHAT BOB SAYS (SOME MORE)

I expected to be embarrassed posing nude at 84 years old, but I was amazed at what an empowering experience it was. In one sense it was truly a landmark in self-appreciation; in another was so easy it was almost a non-event.

-Anonymous

One has the sense that Hellebrand is excavating her own mortality in these photographs while at the same time discovering the eternal female life force in them.
The closing lines from Walt Whitman’s great poem “ I Sing the Body Electric”:
‘O I say these are not the parts and poems of the body only, but of the soul, 
O I say no these are the soul!’

-Paul Cava, 
Artist, private photography dealer and publisher. 

For me taking part in this experience feels like a right of passage honoring all that has gone before. It's a privilege my dear!
-Anonymous

How can we live fully – or die in peace - if we are afraid to think about death? And what does the future hold for a world that no longer values the temperance and balance that come with hard-won experience?

In this work, Nancy Hellebrand challenges us to ask these questions.  By uncovering her subjects, she takes away our last defense – our ability to hide from aging by focusing on costumes and contexts.

-Andrea Blanch, PhD
A former mental health commissioner, Andrea is widely known for her efforts in psychiatric rehabilitation, conflict management, and recovery from trauma.