Irene van Nispen Kress – Silver Stories

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26.03.2018

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“For this project I was looking for dynamic, open, curious women around the age of 65 or older who where having a busy life doing what ever they like to. My own mother died at the age I have now. I myself was looking for positive role models. That’s the reason why I started this project. I started to work with Anke. She used to be my career coach. Mieke, the eldest, is a teacher who was with me in yoga class and Ellen, a sculptor already was my friend. It truly helped me to hear and watch these women cope with their life during the several years I followed them. We built very intimate relationships with each other to be able to do this project. Elderly women are far more interesting than we give them credit for. We tend to think that they are all alike. But their personalities have matured which makes them far less alike than young people are.”

Irene van Nispen Kress

Ellen, 67 © Irene van Nispen Kress

When she was a single mother Ellen changed the purpose of the ship she bought from transporting sand and gravel into a cosy home.

Mieke, 75 © Irene van Nispen Kress

Because Mieke is more outgoing than her husband, they rent a pied a terre in Amsterdam where Mieke spends a couple of days a week to follow her own busy schedule.

In the 25 years they are a couple Anke and Frans raised each other’s children together. In this period Anke survived cancer three times.