In search of photos of people aging

March 19, 2006 11:50 PM

I'm looking for photos taken of people at various points in their lives, showing the effects of age on their appearance. Where can I find these?

Recently I was looking through old family photos, and I was fascinated by how people's appearance changes with age. Now I find myself looking at myself and friends and imagining what they will look like when they're older, or looking at my professors and older work friends and trying to picture how they looked when they were younger.

Has there ever been some sort of photographic study of this, with the results available either online or in a book? I can find this sort of thing for people who have been in the public spotlight for a while (and was starkly reminded of it when I saw Iggy "made of leather" Pop perform not long ago), but I'm more after everyday people.

posted by teem to grab bag (9 comments total)

You reminded me of these yearly portraits of a family.
posted by vacapinta at 11:56 PM on March 19, 2006

I reckon you should search on "morphing" and mabye get this sort of thing:
http://www.cs.utah.edu/~dejohnso/morph.html
second photo down
posted by b33j at 11:57 PM on March 19, 2006

Also, 25 years of the Brown sisters.
posted by vacapinta at 12:03 AM on March 20, 2006

I've always found this fascinating, although it is clear that more than age was affecting this poor woman's appearance.
posted by hooves at 2:28 AM on March 20, 2006

John Stone changed quite a bit between january 2003 and now.
posted by XiBe at 4:57 AM on March 20, 2006

Also, the daily photo project.

And our very own MeFiMaster has an ongoing project featuring himself from time to time.
posted by XiBe at 5:14 AM on March 20, 2006

Interesting query, team.
Age Maps is an interesting project that photographer Bobby Neele Adams uses - he fuses two photos of the same person from different points in their life.

Here are a few more "over the years" portraits.

Chuck Swain - age progression, 19 to 30
Age progression pictures from my birth to college graduation
Portraits of me, throughout the years
Self portrait
The Daily Jason

Image modification and age progression by a forensic illustrator. One of the most common uses of this is to depict what missing kids might look like as they age.
posted by madamjujujive at 5:19 AM on March 20, 2006

Michael Apted's "Up Series" has chronicled the lives of a pretty random set of people since the 1960s. It's quite interesting to see how their appearance has changed. Not just that, but with the moving picture format you also get to see how their mobility has altered, and how class expectations and training seem to have affected their bearing and deportment
posted by meehawl at 5:35 AM on March 20, 2006

I recall, back in art school, reading about an artist who did a progression of photographs featuring his daughter. He had purchased an adult-sized swimsuit when she was little. Every year, he would snap a pic of his daughter wearing the swimsuit. Obviously, when she was little, the suit would be a puddle of cloth around her feet. The result was a progression of pics where his daughter "grew" into the swimsuit. I've never seen the series though, and Googling for this brings up hits for some rather...questionable...websites.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:42 AM on March 20, 2006