The aim of this series is to broaden the social discourse about old age. Today, we are so used to discussing complex sets of challenges concerning the security of the pension system, the dramatic rise of dementia diseases, and the nursing crisis. We even talk about leisure culture and educational opportunities for the so-called silver ager, whereas eroticism and sexuality in high age couples are utterly underrepresented or even tabooed in the public mind. But endless variations of love, desire and eroticism build a universal value that is lived by humankind all over the world at all ages.
Mirja Maria Thiel, born in Hamburg in 1971, is a journalistic documentary photographer with a background in literature (1999, Master of Arts). From 2014 until 2019 she studied "Photojournalism and Documentary Photography" in Hanover. Mirja’s documentary narratives develope around memory and identity while exploring different aspects and personal stories of Alzheimer’s disease, one of the great health challenges, and underrepresented issues of high age like the life-affirming power of sexuality and eroticism. She lives with her husband and their three children close to Bremen, Germany.
