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added another object. One of the most remarkable results of this experiment was the ascertainment of the lack of identity features of their own, and the social stigmatization of economic success in the age of global communication, among young people.
But the photographs of Josep Echaburu have names of their own and speak to us about concrete activities and likings: music and dance, reading and crochet, dressing up, playing a game or simply surrounding oneself with memories and not forgetting.
Older people continue enjoying the pleasure of every instant, maintain optimism, wait and attend to new opportunities.
These portraits know how to ÅglistenÅh to the lives, hopes and illusions of each of the persons that have let us listen to their music. Each one of these images is a positive coming together to life, transmits values that society easily overshadows, but needs desperately. Those that our society forgets can give us more hope of life.
An upside down world?
5
The portrait has been one of the most recurrent artistic genres throughout history. Considered the reflection of a person, this image is not independent from the determining subjectivity of the author and his time. As a way to present a personage, it can become a political, religious instrument, and it helps to get closer to a sociological view of a given period. Traditionally linked to painting and sculpture, with the appearance of photography new possibilities came up as this art form adds immediacy and is used more in daily and private spaces.
No portrait is an objective description, since the will of the portrait artist and the attitude of the person portrayed and the contextual circumstances in which it was done all have an influence on its interpretation.
In the case of "Centre de vida" (Center of life), the ensemble of images shows us a group of older people who live in a residence. And it is surprising because it breaks away from many stereotypes our society has formed about the so-called "senior citizens".
Unfortunately bad understood as a passive group that has ceased to be productive, senior citizens disappear from our daily imagery: the media and publicity flood us with images related to youth, to erase the traces the passage of time leaves on our bodies and lives. Our elders are not part of the everyday media horizon.
Not many years ago, a group of youngsters of 16 to 18 years old were asked to choose some objects that represented their life and personality, so as to make a portrait of each one of them. Two items were unanimously used: a cell phone and money. Very few
Every portrait implies a "mise en scene": the gesture adopted by the personage, clothing, background each element has a meaning and transmits ideas about the person in the portrait: authority, power, closeness.
