A teacher sees her younger self, one of a series of creative pictures by Tom Hussey.
\u00a9 Tom Hussey, TOM HUSSEY Photography LLC. All rights reserved.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Tom Hussey’s Reflections on Aging<\/span><\/h2>\n

We are nine days old in the new year\u2014a calendar transition accompanied by nostalgia for the past and hope for the future, as well as inspiration for resolution and reflection.<\/p>\n

Today, in the spirit of reflection, OIC<\/strong> asks, \u201cWhat happens when you look in a mirror?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
• Is a mirror just a practical way to help you wash your face or fix your hair?<\/li>\n
• Is it an opportunity to give yourself a good talking to (Robert de Niro in Taxi Driver) or whisper a needed motivational message?<\/li>\n
• Or is it an invitation to spend a moment thinking about something important\u2014losing yourself between reflection and reality?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
  

  A moment of nostalgia or a flight of imagination?
  \u00a9 Tom Hussey, TOM HUSSEY Photography LLC. All rights reserved.<\/p><\/div>\n

  What do you see as you stare into the glass?<\/p>\n

  The past. The present. The future.<\/p>\n

  Confidence. Heartache. Imperfection. Ego. Soul.<\/p>\n

  For Dallas photographer Tom Hussey<\/a>, the mirror became a powerful tool for traveling across decades, delivering a message about the inevitable passing of time through a series of creative pictures.<\/p>\n

  A Story about Time<\/h4>\n

  The Reflections<\/i> series was born in a conversation Tom had with a WWII veteran named Gardner. The 80-year-old Gardner explained that he didn\u2019t feel 80 at all. He still felt like a young man.<\/p>\n

  He, like many of us, did not understand how time had passed so quickly. His mind and body, perception and reality, were at odds. The aging process was a mystery.<\/p>\n

  <\/a>

  Gardner, a WWII veteran, feels younger than his 80 years.
  \u00a9 Tom Hussey, TOM HUSSEY Photography LLC. All rights reserved.<\/p><\/div>\n

  Tom translated this conversation into a photograph that tells a compelling story, one that so many of us can relate to. Time stops for no one.<\/p>\n

  The veteran sees himself in the mirror as a younger man, a poignant look at his own history . . . and life. We see past and present at the same moment.<\/p>\n

  A Deeper Meaning<\/h4>\n

  Tom continued the series when he was awarded a job for an Alzheimer\u2019s drug manufactured by Novartis. The subjects in this series see themselves in the mirror as younger\u2014a look into the past.<\/p>\n

  

  Looking into the distant past
  \u00a9 Tom Hussey, TOM HUSSEY Photography LLC. All rights reserved.<\/p><\/div>\n

  What makes these photographs particularly poignant within the Alzherimer\u2019s context is that, often, these patients remember things only from their distant past. Short-term memory fades. They could, in fact, be seeing a very different person in the mirror.<\/p>\n

  Tom recognizes the importance of the series. \u201cI was fortunate to realize as we were making these images how honored I was to be creating this body of work. I felt at the time it would be a truly important and meaningful campaign to many people and a huge milestone in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

  A Meticulous Creative Process<\/h4>\n

  Tom and his team were careful in the selection of the subjects and in placing them in life context, usually by focusing on their professions.<\/p>\n

  

  A retired scientist spends a moment with his younger self as a lab technician.
  \u00a9 Tom Hussey, TOM HUSSEY Photography, LLC. All rights reserved.<\/p><\/div>\n

  “We worked through the casting and location aspects of the series, determining what profession a patient had been in their youth so we could portray that in the reflected image,\u201d Tom explains. “The profession drove what room setting and props were needed to complete the image.\u201d<\/p>\n

  In many of the images, the details of the room add significant clues to the story. In some, Tom has included old photos of the subject as part of the decor.<\/p>\n

  The artistic choice of selective color and a muted palette also adds to the elusive nature of time. Is the image set in the past or present, or in some imaginary world in between?<\/p>\n

  A Powerful Response<\/h4>\n

  Everyone will have his or her own personal response and \u201cOh, I see” moment<\/b>\u00a0when studying these photographs. The images confront us with a chronicle of time that will have different meanings for different people.<\/p>\n

  

  What do these photos make you feel?
  \u00a9 Tom Hussey, TOM HUSSEY Photography LLC. All rights reserved.<\/p><\/div>\n

  What is your response to these creative pictures?<\/p>\n

  For the photographer, the experience of creating these images offered a way to reflect on the process of aging.<\/p>\n

  Tom\u2019s advice: \u201cEmbrace the passing of time. Enjoy all the eras and try to experience them completely.\u201d<\/p>\n

  OIC adds an additional life lesson from Gabriel Garc\u00eda M\u00e1rquez:<\/p>\n

  \u201cIt is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n

  More projects that explore time passing:\u00a0<\/i><\/strong>See amazing photographs that recapture people, poses, and settings from old photos in present day time VIA\u00a0\u00a0Barnorama<\/a>\u00a0and Pinterest.<\/a>\u00a0Get\u00a0a fascinating glimpse at aging and cultural mores with\u00a0<\/i><\/i><\/i>the photographic project by Zed Nelson <\/a>that\u00a0recorded a family of three over two decades. And visit our post on Jason Powell’s photographs <\/a>that merge past with present\u2014the ultimate in time travel.<\/i><\/p>\n

  M\u00e1rquez quote from GoodReads.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

  Comment<\/i><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>on this post below, or inspire insight with your own\u00a0OIC Moment\u00a0<\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":16021,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108,171],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ideas-creative","category-photography-creative"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16022"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40699,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16022\/revisions\/40699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oh-i-see.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}