Behind Gray Eyes

Adozen insightful photographers have stormed (make that strolled) onto the scene to display their work — close-ups, perspectives, portraits and landscapes — providing us with a glimpse into how they see the world around them. The collection is compelling, yet the artists are an unlikely bunch using an even more unlikely medium.
Last month, the Gables of Ojai, an independent and assisted-living facility for senior citizens, handed out one-time-use, 35mm disposable cameras to interested residents, and the Gray Eyes Project took off. And what developed was so much more than snapshots.

“I was amazed with the disposables, with the quality and with the insights of the residents,” says Denise Daniels, activities director for the Gables, where the facility’s nine-acre landscaped footprint provided most of the inspiration behind the photos.

“This is such a beautiful place; I wanted to show it to some of our friends,” says 86-year-old photographer Ellen Christensen, whose close-up images of bougainvillea, orchids and roses from the facility’s gardens showed the intensity of a well-seasoned shutterbug.

A native of Ventura County, Christensen was born in Santa Paula and came to the Gables last November. She admits that prior to this project, she “had never been much of a photographer person.”

“I’ve always enjoyed taking pictures,” says Rankin Griesinger, “but I haven’t been really photographing much in the last few years.” The Gray Eyes Project changed all that for him. At 77, Griesinger is the youngest photographer, who arrived to the Gables just four months ago. “They call me kid,” he says with a chuckle.

“One that really caught my eye was Rankin’s picture looking up from the ground upward into a palm tree and catching the seedpods,” Daniels says.

 “We had to convince him that it was really a good photograph,” Christensen adds.

“Well, it’s unusual, and that’s what I was trying to get,” Griesinger says. “It should have been shot in low light.” His artistic side edged out, though. “I just wasn’t going to shoot the standard old photos.”

Lorraine Ainsworth, 85, has been at the Gables for three years. Her approach to her assignment was creative and methodical. “I wanted to compose a picture.”

“The picture of the pool was phenomenal,” Daniels says, impressed by how Ainsworth captured the shadows of the surrounding trees.

After Ainsworth snapped photos around her home for the Gray Eyes Project, she set off for Alaska to capture the dramatic scenery of the Land of the Midnight Sun. She began the trip with a fancy digital camera, which she discovered, inconveniently, would need batteries. She quickly replaced it with the camera she had grown accustomed to. “I had to get a throw-away.” Thankful to have permanent remembrances of her trip, she adds, “If I hadn’t had my camera, it would only be a memory.”

One of the photographers, Maxine Miller, managed to capture a photo of the ubiquitous post office tower from an angle not often seen, from Libbey Park, behind the tower. A different vantage point than what is normally depicted showed the unique perspectives offered by the seniors.

Midway through the project, would-be photographer Joan Marshall fell and broke her hip. Marshall is currently recuperating in the hospital, and the project anxiously awaits the anticipated return of her camera.

The Gray Eyes Project started a couple of months ago as an idea conceived by local singer-songwriter and sometime photographer Al Westcott. It was during one of his regular gigs at the Gables that the wheels got turning.

Westcott, whose love of photography first sparked at age 10 with his first Brownie instamatic camera, says he asked himself, “How can I bring some degree of creativity to these folks?”

The 61-year-old Vietnam veteran, whose long gray beard and abundant silver hair — only partially obscured by a Baltimore Orioles cap or a cowboy hat — didn’t hesitate. “The answer was photography.”
His six decades, gray locks and a stroke that caused a loss of vision in his right eye a year ago have given Westcott some insight into the perceptions that surround our elders. He says he wanted to find a way to overcome the notion that “older people become invisible to younger generations.”

“From what I saw performing in these assisted living facilities, the spark of life is still there, contrary to what some may think is an invisible group of people,” he says.

“I am just amazed at what this project has done,” Daniels says. “To me this project embodies giving those residents that wanted to a reason to get out and look for the beauty and to photograph what life living here or in our community meant to them.”
In a very short time, the project has generated a great amount of interest. The Web site, www.grayeyesproject.com, states, “The Gray Eyes Project is the vision of the world and the version of beauty from the eyes of the oldest of us.” The site displays digital images from most of the photographers and has already received more than 1,000 hits.

Local donations to the project have flooded in. In one instance, Westcott recently received an anonymous donation, “a cash $100 bill in my P.O. box.” Westcott has managed expenses such that it only takes $10 to support one senior’s work.

After perusing the local phone book and dialing for donors, Westcott enlisted the help of local photographer Linda Jordan, who supplied materials and brought Ken Wise of Image 7 Framing in Ventura into the fray to cut out custom mats for the enlarged prints. The Ojai Valley Camera Club even pitched in a few dollars for the worthy cause.

Getting the cameras wasn’t as easy. Kodak turned Westcott down. But when Amani Hishmeh of the Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy in Ojai heard about the project, Westcott says she got in touch with the corporate office, who agreed to donate the disposable cameras, which Westcott knew would provide affordability and ease of use.

Still, enlarging the finished product was a challenge, given the inferior quality of the lenses. “It’s not a Nikon, suffice it to say,” he says. Daniels and Westcott were able to work with the images, once converted to a digital format, to get the most out of them.

Daniels, a photographer herself, then printed the photos on her home computer. “She’s been pretty instrumental in the whole thing,” Westcott says.

The influx of donations have somewhat disproved Westcott’s theory on the invisibility of elders. “It lets [the seniors] know that, yeah, people out there still care that we have something to say,” he says.

Things have happened so fast, Westcott says there hasn’t been much of an opportunity to deal with the logistics of, for example, applying to become a 501(c)3 nonprofit. “I would think if we had this conversation six months from now all that sort of stuff would be in place.”

What’s most important right now, in part because the photographers aren’t getting any younger, is to get their work out in the public eye. “One of the key factors here, I think, is the visibility of these photos,” says Westcott, who has arranged to have one of each of the images chosen by the photographers displayed within the week throughout the Ojai Valley at various locations, including Coffee Connection, David Whipple Jewelers, Ojai Coffee Roasting Company and Foxy Lady Beauty Salon.

Westcott’s childhood in Baltimore was spent playing music and taking pictures. Now, as an 11-year Ojai resident who can often be seen performing at the local coffeehouses, he understands the magic of a community that fully supports the arts. “It is an artsy, craftsy, musiciany, ethereal kind of place to live.”

When asked what’s next for Gray Eyes, Daniels is quick to respond. “I think we’re hoping to expand this to all the Parsons properties,” referring to the Parsons Group, which owns the Gables and six other communities in California, Texas and Arizona.

Westcott is optimistic. “Ultimately, what can happen is it can be a national project,” he says. But he knows money is tight. Future projects will be predicated on funding for photo processing, matting and enlargement services, which is 100 percent donation-based. “I’ve contacted AARP, and I’m waiting for a response from them.”

Ainsworth recognizes the importance and the lasting impact of the project: “I think taking pictures is part of your life; it’s part of the moment at the time.”    

For more information about the Gray Eyes Project, visit www.grayeyesproject.com or call 646-1446.