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memory lane<br />
Leo<br />
‘I never really experienced anxiety<br />
until I was 24. I was so confident,<br />
then suddenly I’m like this anxious<br />
mess, and now I’m, like, freaking<br />
out. It’s weird. I think maybe it’s a<br />
lot to do with fear of the future. It’s<br />
a big shift in energy or something.’<br />
– Leo, 26 years old<br />
When asked if she had a favourite<br />
subject, Jenny’s answer was a firm<br />
“absolutely not”. For her, they all<br />
came together to build something<br />
stronger: “The portrait of a<br />
community, with 100 faces, but all<br />
part of the same thing.<br />
“Photographing and interviewing<br />
someone is quite an intimate act.<br />
Working on this series, I really got<br />
a sense that there are no strangers,<br />
just people you haven’t had the<br />
time to get to know yet,” Jenny<br />
says. “I love spending time with<br />
new people, and seeing them open<br />
up and share a little of themselves.<br />
I enjoy the listening, and they<br />
seem to enjoy the collaboration. I<br />
want more of this, please… More<br />
human interaction. It’s the energy<br />
we need to stay interested in each<br />
other. The more you talk to people<br />
you don’t know, the more it feels<br />
natural, and what’s better than a<br />
conversation where you have no<br />
idea where it will lead?”<br />
But as well as the profound,<br />
the philosophical, and the<br />
unexpected, the seemingly<br />
mundane aspects of the human<br />
experience shine through<br />
emotively, as demonstrated by<br />
many of the subjects, including<br />
88-year-old Hyacinth: “I used to<br />
love dancing. I used to go to six<br />
dances in one night and then not<br />
get up till three on a Sunday. Then<br />
I reached an age where I say, this<br />
is not for me. Take it easy.”<br />
Life is often far from linear.<br />
We go down side paths, make<br />
leaps forward, and perhaps take<br />
steps back again. In One Hundred<br />
Years, each story comes together<br />
to create one journey, a human<br />
journey, and Jenny wants to take<br />
readers there – as she did herself.<br />
“Listen to the voices, stories,<br />
and opinions that may trigger<br />
memories and reflections of your<br />
own lives, or open up new ways<br />
of thinking,” Jenny says. “I want<br />
to encourage people to drop the<br />
prejudices we all carry and how<br />
we guess what people are like<br />
from just looking at them – you<br />
have to make time to listen.”<br />
‘One Hundred Years: Portraits of a<br />
community aged 0–100’ by Jenny<br />
Lewis (Hoxton Mini Press) is out now.<br />
<strong>happiful</strong>.com | September <strong>2021</strong> | 91
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