• Intelligencer
  • The Cut
  • Vulture
  • The Strategist
  • Curbed
  • Grub Street
  • Subscribe to the Magazine Give a Gift Subscription Buy Back Issues Current Issue Contents
    Subscribe to New York Magazine
  • Subscribe
  • Profile
    Sign Out
The Cut
  • Style
  • Self
  • Culture
  • Power
Style
  • Fashion
  • Beauty
  • Parties & Red Carpet
  • Fashion Shows
  • Cathy Horyn
  • The Cut Shop
Self
  • Health & Wellness
  • The State of the Uterus
  • Parenting
  • Advice
  • Sex & Relationships
  • Horoscopes
Culture
  • Books
  • Television
  • Movies
  • Music
  • Celebrity
Power
  • Politics
  • Work
  • Money
  • Rebecca Traister
More
  • Latest Stories
  • Video
  • About Us
  • nymag.com
  • New York Magazine
  • Intelligencer
  • Vulture
  • The Cut
  • The Strategist
  • Grub Street
  • Curbed
gallery
August 16, 2015

Photos of Glamorous Women of a Certain Age

By Stephanie Eckardt

Share

  • Share
  • Tweet

Photographer Tirzah Brott has been fascinated with elegant older women since she saw Sunset Boulevard as a child. As an adult walking around Manhattan, Brott — who is also assistant photo editor at New York — started shooting those who caught her eye. Sometimes she asked for their stories, but mostly she preferred to keep their pasts a fantasy. The Cut spoke with Brott about the resultant collection of photos, called Pentimento.

How did you come to start shooting these women?
I don’t really know how the obsession developed, but it’s always been there. These are the women that I look at on the street and follow: older women who, to me, seem like they’ve been directly transported from some other era. Even if no one’s noticing them, they’re still dressing to the nines and in the same things that they wore when they were 25.

You took almost all of these photos in New York, but you grew up in California. Did you see these types of women there, too?
It’s funny: not really. I lived in Los Angeles for a year and I definitely saw them there — I mean, Sunset Boulevard is set in Beverly Hills. But I started this project in New York. I went to school upstate at Bard, and came down to the city to shoot every weekend for four or five months. I’d go to this one building at 57th and Second where a ton of older women live, and probably don’t go much farther than the Duane Reade half a block away.

Right outside Bergdorf Goodman, tourists are always taking pictures of these over-the-top women who dress in super-bright colors. But the kind of women I’m looking for aren’t quite as much of a spectacle. I don’t think many of them realize how they appear — that’s just how they dress, that’s just what they do, and they don’t think it seems out of the ordinary. There’s this element of, I’m just walking through the streets and this is how I am.

How much time did you spend with each woman?
Most of them weren’t interested in talking a whole lot. They were flattered, but I don’t think they wanted to go beyond Oh, you want to take my picture! and share their life story. That was fine with me — I was seeing them in this sort of fantasy world, anyway, so I didn’t really totally need the truth. Some of them were definitely chatterboxes, and invited me over for tea and to look at photos of them when they were younger. I did it with a couple, but I was conflicted sometimes about whether I wanted to know more, or to keep my imagination of all the amazing things they’d done in their lives, whether true or not. It definitely became sort of my own fantasy about what it means to be an older woman. Which may not be as great as I make it out to be in the pictures, but I think that’s okay.

What’s the meaning behind the title?
I took a painting class to get some space from this project, and the teacher told us that when you scrape away a painting to see the revisions underneath, that’s called pentimento. I thought that was such a great name for a portrait, especially of an older person who has layers beneath them, but which you still see all at the same time.

Why did you make sure to ask each woman to pose, as opposed to capturing them candidly?
It seemed unfair to assume everything, to simply see them in passing and take their picture, because I don’t actually know anything about these people and I’m projecting onto them whatever I think it means to be an older woman. To me, in order to establish some element of truthfulness, you have to actually engage with your subject. Part of the point of this was for them to know that I was noticing them. Like I said, I don’t think that they always know how they appear, and I think that an older woman might assume a younger woman is looking at her with judgment. But I didn’t want to judge and I didn’t want them to think that I was judging them. I was genuinely approaching them because I think they’re incredible, and I felt like I needed to say that, not only verbally, but by showing them the respect of asking for permission. Even if I was making assumptions, but that’s unavoidable I guess.

That’s kind of the fun part.
Yeah. I want to leave something open to interpretation.

Click through the slideshow to see Brott’s portraits.

View
1 / 18 Photos
Patricia  Photo: Tirzah Brott
Untitled  Photo: Tizrah Brott
Elaine  Photo: Tirzah Brott
Joan  Photo: Tirzah Brott
Francesca  Photo: Tirzah Brott
Untitled  Photo: Tirzah Brott
Annette  Photo: Tirzah Brott
Neesie  Photo: Tirzah Brott
Irene  Photo: Tirzah Brott
Hetty  Photo: Tirzah Brott
Gay  Photo: Tirzah Brott
Gail  Photo: Tirzah Brott
Untitled  Photo: Tirzah Brott
Fuji  Photo: Tirzah Brott
Rosaline  Photo: Tirzah Brott
Ann  Photo: Tirzah Brott
Marina  Photo: Tizrah Brott
Therese  Photo: Tizrah Brott
1 / 18

Tags:

  • gallery
  • tirzah brott
  • photography
  • fashions

More Galleries

red carpet June 5, 2022
All the Best Looks at the 2022 MTV Movie and TV Awards  Sydney Sweeney, Vanessa Hudgens, Jay Ellis, and more! 
parties! May 20, 2022
The Bestest Party Looks of the Week  Harry Styles > everyone! 
parties! May 13, 2022
The Bestest Party Looks of the Week  Bury me in Dove Cameron’s Saint Sintra skirt. 
parties! May 6, 2022
The Bestest Party Looks of the Week  Cue the Met Gala after-party FOMO. 
met gala 2022 May 2, 2022
Met Gala 2022: All the Looks [Photos]  Billie Eilish, Kim Kardashian, Michelle Yeoh, Hailey Bieber, Megan Thee Stallion, Cardi B, Blake Lively, and more. 
parties! Apr. 29, 2022
The Bestest Party Looks of the Week  This one goes to Olivia Rodrigo and her sweater vest. 
parties! Apr. 22, 2022
The Bestest Party Looks of the Week  “Fuck those Zoom tops.” 
celebrity style Apr. 18, 2022
The Best Looks From Coachella 2022  From Harry Styles’s sparkling Gucci set to Megan Thee Stallion’s metallic bodysuit. 
style Apr. 13, 2022
A Look Inside the New Museum’s Spring Gala  Featuring all the best looks. 
grammys 2022 Apr. 3, 2022
Grammy Awards 2022 Red Carpet: All the Looks  Lady Gaga, Olivia Rodrigo, Lenny Kravitz, Lil Nas X, Billie Eilish, and more. 
oscars 2022 Mar. 28, 2022
How Were The Oscars After Party Looks Better Than The Actual Award Looks?  Finally, some fun. 
oscars 2022 Mar. 27, 2022
All the Looks From the 2022 Oscars Red Carpet  Zendaya, Regina Hall, Timothée Chalamet, Andrew Garfield, Kristen Stewart, Ariana DeBose, and more. 
style Mar. 22, 2022
Bridgerton Season 2 Premiere: All the Red-Carpet Looks 
style Mar. 13, 2022
BAFTAs 2022: All the Red-Carpet Looks  Florence Pugh, Daniel Kaluuya, Emma Watson, and more! 
celebrity fashion Mar. 6, 2022
Spirit Awards 2022: All the Red-Carpet Looks  Julia Fox, Andrew Garfield, Kristen Stewart, and more! 
Mar. 1, 2022
All of Rihanna’s Maternity Looks  From belly-baring looks to sexy leather dresses. 
Feb. 27, 2022
SAG Awards 2022: All the Red-Carpet Looks  Selena Gomez, Ariana Debose, Daveed Diggs, and more! 
paris couture week 2022 Jan. 27, 2022
Glenn Martens Wows As Guest Couturier for Gaultier Haute Couture It is a sight to behold.
By Vivian Chuang
Dec. 9, 2021
All the Looks From the And Just Like That … Red Carpet  Sarah Jessica Parker, Billy Eichner, Sara Ramirez, and more. 
style Nov. 29, 2021
Gotham Awards 2021: All the Red-Carpet Looks  Tessa Thompson! Kristen Stewart! And more. 
  • Style
  • Self
  • Culture
  • Power
  • Newsletters
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Help
  • We’re Hiring
  • Press
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • Ad Choices
  • Do Not Sell My Info
  • Accessibility
The Cut is a Vox Media Network. © 2022 Vox Media, LLC. All rights reserved.