This image is part of my series All This Love that highlights love, sexuality and eroticism in high age. Lilly, 85 (right), and Waltraud, 76, are a couple for 12 years. Both were married before they met, Lilly has two children. Waltraud was born as Walter and received her sex reassignement surgery in Germany in the 80s. Her mental and physical transition from her birth sex to her felt gender identity was a long and difficult journey. About her partnership with Lilly she says: "I’ve never been so happy and fullfilled in my whole life!"
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.
