Quiet loneliness of old people

During photography, the most interesting thing for me is always people, or rather their life stories. When I take pictures, I talk a lot. During this time, a huge number of photographs and life stories have accumulated, funny and not very funny. For a long time, I have had an unbearable longing after talking with old people. Feeling as if they are crushed and forgotten. As if they left all hope in the past, and they lacked the strength and perseverance to realize their dreams. Few of them are really happy.

Black and white portrait of an old man
Black and white portrait of an elderly woman

Often, their eyes are hard, with tears running down, or with quiet flashes of joy from memories that have not faded in memory. No longer keeping up with the outside world, constantly “stumbling” about it, they gradually go into their own world. Their old age burns out in silence and loneliness. Old people are afraid of their quiet loneliness, when you even forget how to speak, it seems to be created from silence and emptiness.

And the most important thing you can give them is a human word, presence and friendship. It’s like giving them life. After all, old people are like children: they are helpless, vulnerable, dependent on others, they painfully lack love, attention and care, and they are ready to love someone who will be kind to them.

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