William Wegman is known for photographs of his weimaraners dressed as humans and posing like humans. (See funny video.) Sacha Goldberger, a 44-year-old French photographer, has his own unique subject: his 93-year-old grandmother, dressed as a superhuman and demonstrating how to be one.
Judith Graham writes about the dynamic duo in a New York Times blog post, “The New Old Age: Caregiving, Laced with Humor.”
“Their unusual collaboration began after Frederika retired from her career as a textile consultant at age 80 and fell into a funk.
“ ‘I was very depressed because I lived for working,’ she told me in our Skype conversation.
“Sacha had long dreamed of creating what he calls a ‘Woody Allen-like Web site with a French Jewish humor,’ and he had an inspiration. What if he took one of the pillars of that type of humor, a French man’s relationship with his mother and grandmother, and asked Frederika to play along with some oddball ideas? …
“ ‘It was like a game for us, deciding what crazy thing we were going to do next, how we were going to keep people from being bored,’ said Sacha, who traces his close relationship with his grandmother to age 14, when she taught him how to drive and often picked him up at school. ‘Making pictures was a very good excuse to spend time together.’ …
“People responded enthusiastically, and before long Sacha had cooked up what ended up becoming the most popular character role for Frederika: Super Mamika, outfitted in a body-hugging costume, tights, a motorcycle helmet and a flowing cape.” More.
One of Goldberger’s books is Mamika: My Mighty Little Grandmother. I features a broad array of Mamika’s personae.
Note this Frederika quote: “I like everything that my grandson does.”
That’s how I feel about my grandchildren.
Photograph: Sacha Goldberger
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