“55+” Is All about Old Age – Integrity or Despair?

If Erik Erikson characterizes old age as a period of “Integrity vs. Despair,” during which a person focuses on reflecting back on their life, perhaps that is what UFO (Unit Fotografi) UGM (Universitas Gadjah Mada) is trying to show us through their photo exhibition entitled “55+” held at the Cafebale Art Gallery, Yogyakarta.

“What do people do in their later part of life? Do they remain the backbone of the family that keeps them a hard-worker, or has they distinguished happiness from their current condition, or are they hopelessly waiting for the time their eyes closed, or do they feel like walking through the “dark” days of loneliness?” — Wiwin Nopiansah’s (the exhibition’s foreperson) foreword in the exhibition catalog. Muhammad Adin Imaduddin, one of UFO members having his “Endless Love” photo being exhibited, gave out that one does not always “celebrate” his/her old age with sadness but more with happiness.

Adin also explained that at the beginning, they (the UFO members) had chosen the activities at nursing homes as their photo theme. Later on, they found that their photos became monotonous because of the theme and then chose “old age” in substitution. However, some photos taken at some nursing homes are displayed as they could get through the curatorial stage by Brama Danuwinata, Didi Mugitriman and Wicak Baskoro.

As of your leisure time, you can visit this exhibition between 9:00am and 9:00pm everyday until September 1, 2010. There are 53 photographs (23 single and 30 story) by 25 photographers being displayed in a such antique building in Jl. Kaliurang KM 5,6 (across the Food Fezt restaurant).

Finally, with this annual exhibition, Wiwin expects that the photographs by UFO’s 17th generation this year can be a worthy subject of discussion, and appreciation comes not only to the photos’ subjects but to the social happenings that the photographers would like to emit to the audiences, especially photography enthusiasts.