Rosemary not only has never sewed a button but until I discovered that I could buy jeans that fit me exactly at Mark’s Work Warehouse I was forced to do my own hems. And of course Rosemary refuses to cook so I have to do that. In short in our family she rules most of the time.

In this spirit of my personal feminism I decry and dislike the posting in social media of pictures of older women that have been de-pored (as in skin pores) and hazed and blurred up. Worst of all are the comments from the womens’ friends (more so than the men): “OMG you are still beautiful!”  It is the presence of still that implies that other nasty expression that we all think but do not want to write, “You have been ravaged by time”.

Anita Roberts & Nora Patrich painting

In media, all media women who use Oil of Olay are models in their 20s. We live in a society that glorifies that kind of youth. If you are young you will find yourself attracted to people your age. In your 40s you might opt for a Miata and a younger redhead. 

Few ever mention the idea that persons like this one (74) is attracted to my own wife. She is not still beautiful. She is beautiful.

In vain I am not able to find women over 40 or over 50 to pose for me (clothed or not so).

The pictures you see here of the breathtakingly beautiful Anita Roberts have sat in my files for a couple of years. We had a session with Nora Patrich when she was in town two years ago. The story behind our photographs was that I had photographed Roberts as a much younger woman.

There is a tremendous pleasure in being able to photograph someone with that long lapse of time.

Because of our 21^st century idea of what is correct and what is not I had to clone a rose on to her exposed breast. In spite of it Roberts is beautiful, handsome, striking, regal, elegant and not still. In fact she might not have been all that when I first photographed her!

Anita Roberts & Nora Patrich