Fire, aging, and the stories we choose to see

Last week brought us into the Year of the Fire Horse--a rare zodiac combination that appears only once every 60 years. It symbolizes independence, bold self-expression, high energy, passion-driven action, and a refusal to be confined.

Who do you think of when you hear those traits?

These qualities are often associated with youth. But in my work, they show up most vividly in older adulthood.

There is a persistent cultural myth that aging is synonymous with shrinking. Becoming quieter, less decisive, less vibrant. Yet the older adults I photograph regularly challenge that assumption. They display clarity about who they are and what is important. They advocate for themselves and for others. They pursue new interests, maintain strong opinions, and move through the world with confidence earned through years of life experience.

In many ways, later life can be our most authentic season. There is less performance, less urgency to impress, and more willingness to live on one's own terms. Less pressure to fit into a box designed by others, and more freedom to be ourselves.

So why don't we see that reflected more often?

When the majority of photographs of older adults are taken in medical settings, in the context of "people who need help," and at end-of-life, we unintentionally reinforce the idea that this stage of life is primarily about decline. The absence of images showing that fire I see every day can quietly feed ageist stereotypes, or make us think that the vitality doesn't exist past a certain decade.

Authentic imagery has power. It shapes expectation. It influences treatment. If impacts how people see themselves and one another.

Photographs that portray older adults as autonomous, expressive, passionate individuals are not "cute," or "nice extras" to think of when practical tasks are complete. They are illustrative interventions that can help us see individuals as the empowered humans that they are, and remind us to treat them as such.

The Year of the Fire Horse invites us to welcome bold authenticity. I extend a similar invitation, for us all to look for those qualities where they already exist--including in the lives of people in their seventies, eighties, nineties, and above.