SOUTH HADLEY — When 74-year-old Carolyn Hoyt looks at a photo of herself at age 18, hanging alongside a recent portrait of herself, she sees a familiar yet remarkably distant face.
“I know some things about that person that the younger picture was of … But that person and who I am now are a long ways apart,” she said of the two photos, taken more than 50 years apart.
The photos, which sit alongside portrait sets of 34 other women at Loomis Village retirement community, are part of an exhibit known as “The Reunion Project.” Created by Lora Brody, a photographer and resident scholar at the Brandeis Women’s Studies Center, the exhibit pairs portraits of senior women with photos of their younger selves — a “reunion” of past and present identities.
The exhibit is currently displayed in the hallway of the main building at Loomis Village, and will eventually be moved to Mount Holyoke College.
For Hoyt, seeing the photos side by side led her to reflect on her personal growth in the decades between the two photos.
“That person would never have taken any kind of leadership role, either here or anywhere else,” she said of herself at 18, describing her younger self as a shy person who often felt like she was “on the outside looking in” during her school days.
But now, Hoyt looks at that time as defined by “before.”
“I thought, oh, this is before,” Hoyt said. “Sort of like, before anything really happened in my life. Before I became a VISTA volunteer. Before I got married. Before I got an MBA. Before I did all of the things that I’ve done since then.”
Participant Ruth Cowan said that the sense of reflection encouraged by the project is part of the “ambience for the older generation.” Cowan, 88, was 19 in her contributed photo.
“When you have a little time in your age bracket to think back and be a little reflective and maybe not run around quite so much as you might like to, it sort of fits right in that pattern,” she said.
Plus, it’s “cheaper than therapy,” Cowan said with a laugh, adding that the experience was “pretty revelatory for some people.”
“They might not be quite so used to talking all the time about how they felt then,” she continued.
But participating in the exhibit wasn’t only therapeutic, said Shirley Brown, 83.
“I was going to a party,” she said of the experience. “I wasn’t going to therapy.”
“It was a new event to me… I’ve done a lot of things in my life, but I’ve never done anything along these lines,” Brown said.
Josefina Pangan, 83, said that the exhibit aligned with her wishes to use her own life experiences to help others.
“I like my life, so I really like to share it,” Pangan said.
“I immigrated here, so it’s a very different life than growing up in America,” she said, “but I have been treated well and I’ve been happy, but I must say it’s because I wanted to be happy.”
“I feel like I’ve lived well,” she concluded. “I’m ready to go any time. I’ve done my job. I’ve been a good mother, a good wife, a good grandmother, I’ve done it… I am just happy, at peace, and I just want people to be like that. Life is so short.”
In addition to the photos, the exhibit also provided written prompts for the women to answer anonymously, which were then compiled and placed on walls alongside the photos.
Prompts ranged from “I used to think” vs. “Now I know”; “I remember” vs. “I’ve forgotten”; to “I would like to tell young people today,” and produced responses that ranged from uplifting to solemn.
In an “I used to think” column, one participant wrote, “I had to grow up to be a wife and mother. That college was fun but not so important. That I would not have a career and be important to society.”
But as she elaborated in the “Now I know” response: “College led to more: grad school at 37, a career as a psychotherapist. That it’s fine that I married three times; I finally learned how to do it right.”
Another participant wrote that she used to think “the major problems of the times were civil rights issues that could be resolved with government concern and action.”
But now, she continued, “The same problems, compounded by so many others, still plague us.”
“Life wasn’t complicated,” wrote another participant.
Now? “It is.”
Brody wrote via email that “While each group of women I photograph brings something special to the project, the group at Loomis was quite remarkable in terms of enthusiasm for an understanding of the project.”
Brown agreed, noting that “enthusiasm came through” from all participants. In January, Hoyt said that Brody, who designed the project with senior women in mind, will be returning to Loomis Village at her suggestion to recreate the project with men.
“It’s going to be a new experience for our men and for (Brody),” Hoyt said.
For Hoyt, the exhibit also presents an opportunity to break stereotypes that younger people might hold about seniors.
“Certainly, the 20s, 30s, 40s set of people out there have a vision of what a place like this would be,” Hoyt said, “and it isn’t one they’re enthusiastic about going to. And that’s because they’ve got this image, which I think is a culture image, and it does not match the reality of this at all.
“I think seeing this kind of gallery is helpful in terms of breaking the stereotype that there’s something weird about aging people,” she concluded.
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.
