“Old love” is an unconventional series about intimacy and sexuality. Annabel Oosteweeghel doesn’t feature in her work the perfect young bodies we are used to seeing. Her older couples create scenes of powerful tenderness and eroticism.
Love between old people is too often overlooked by the media. This is the remark that pushed Annabel Oosteweeghel to embark on this project. The Dutch photographer believes that we are exposed to a narrow and limited image of passion and love. “We’re used to this image of youthful sexuality and intimacy. But for me, older people are beautiful as well—and they also have an intimate life that should be shown”, she tells us.
The photographer created storylines featuring six different couples. She employed staged portraiture to emphasize the plot and create an immersive world. The setting recalls the 1960s, in an homage to the epoch that allowed for sexual liberty. A freedom that became the prerogative of the youth. Oosteweeghel’s unabashed lovers stand for a break in this pattern.
“I especially wanted to show what strong fantasies older people can have about sex: the body ages but the spirit does not, and the spirit is free to dream and fantasize”, says Oosteweeghel. With her series, she dresses her offbeat message in vintage clothes and captures it in a movie-like atmosphere.
Images from “Old Love” ¦ © Annabel Oosteweeghel
