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Southeast Missourian

Seeing and Being Seen Through a Photographer's Eyes

By Leni Santoro
Friday, August 2, 2024
Photo by Leni Santoro

What does it look like to be an older American?

Too often in our youth-obsessed American society, we don’t get to know, or we see a stereotypical version of the experience, or others speak for people who are in the retired demographic. But we want to learn directly from the people who are a part of this group. So here, inspired by The New York Times’ story “‘It’s Fun to Be Alive:’ 13 older photographers show us their work — and themselves,” we see how people who are retired view the world and themselves.

Here, photographer Leni Santoro shares photographs from her body of work about seeing and being seen while in her 70s.

Photo by Leni Santoro

My grandfather gave me my very first camera. A Kodak Brownie Holiday. He said look at the world with four eyes; two for you and two for me. I have done this all of my life. I took pictures of my family, the houses I lived in, the food I cooked. Sometimes, the two eyes were for the bride at her wedding to be shared with a family. Sometimes, I used those eyes to share photos of a story in a newspaper. Now, I take pictures of memories.

Photo by Leni Santoro

Tucked away in the garden are pieces of my life, little reminders of times long ago. My memories are invisible to others who see only a splash of color, an old statue or two, a favorite flower or a bird’s nest bottle.

But now, in the quiet time of my life, after a life of photographing others, I spend a few hours photographing these.

Photo by Leni Santoro

There is the flamingo that reminds me of time spent in Florida and in San Diego at the zoo with my children. A bird’s nest bottle from Colonial Williamsburg. A gnome that brings to mind the first book I bought for my first daughter. And a shaft of grass laden with seeds, that in its ripening speaks of times when dreams of being anything and everything were as spread out before me as the grass upon the hillside.

Photo by Leni Santoro