Blau turned her fascination into a captivating documentary project within her Master’s Degree in Documentary Photography at Sydney University, interviewing and capturing the stories of a large number of women over 50.
“Many women are undergoing significant changes in their life with changes to family responsibilities as children become more independent,” Blau explains, “so this time becomes a crossroads when many women, after years of giving, can begin to feel a bit irrelevant. These feelings can be further exacerbated by a society obsessed with youth and beauty leading to many women fearing a slide towards invisibility.”
Yet despite the barriers and perceptions that go along with turning 50, Blau found incredible inspiration in the stories and photos of the women she interviewed. “Everyone had their individual story to tell. This mid-life crisis is often a mid-life opportunity as women reflect, take stock of their achievements and accumulated wisdom and discover a time of liberation and possibility. For many, it’s a window of opportunity that women in previous generations were not afforded,” she says.
Blau has now self-published this series of intimate portraits and personal stories as a unique book about women’s feelings about the big birthday, and years following. She is keen to extend her project and is looking to connect with a wider range of women in their 50s, from different ethnicities and backgrounds, to add to her collection of stories and photographs with a view to possible exhibition or further publication.
She is looking for volunteers to be photographed and interviewed.
