bobbycaputo: Senior Citizens Having the Time of Their…
Senior Citizens Having the Time of Their Lives
When Kendrick Brinson first heard of Sun City, a retirement community in Arizona that boasts a squad of senior-citizen cheerleaders, she knew she had to visit. Sun City, the first “planned active retirement community,” had its 50thanniversary on Jan. 1, 2010; Brinson made her first trip in December 2009. Six visits and 3½ years later, Brinson released Sun City: Life After Life, a limited-edition book designed by Deb Pang Davis that she envisions as a sort of “retro brochure” or visual guidebook to the community.
With more than 120 clubs, Sun City arguably has one of the most active populaces anywhere, for any age group. In fact, Brinson’s first week in Sun City wore out the twentysomething with all of its daily activities. Brinson explained via email, “What makes Sun City unique, other than the fact that it is an actual city of tens of thousands of retirees, is that almost everyone is active in one way or another. I’d head to the tap class or the yoga class or the pickleball practice and photograph those activities and ask everyone I’d meet what else they had going on and if I could tag along.”
Brinson wanted to focus on a community of senior citizens where the residents were continuing to live, rather than waiting to die. “We’ve all seen photo stories about aging before, and we know the stereotype of a grandparent sitting in a rocking chair as they age,” she said. “What I love about Sun City is that this place is spring break for the elderly. … I wanted to flip the stereotype of the wheelchair-bound granny on its head because that’s not how everyone has to age. Just because you’re 75 doesn’t mean you can’t learn synchronized swimming and be really good at it.”
For reasons of personal history I don’t think I’ve shared on Tumblr (what? personal history I haven’t shared?), this photoset evokes strong memories of my childhood.
Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/59513083296.
