An Aging World

As a geriatrician entering the twilight of my career, I look to the philosophers of my field for guidance on how to navigate my own later years. In addition to contemporary texts and journals I turned toward the ancients and discovered a gem in the writings

It was my pleasure and honor to speak today at the Museum of Modern Art in a lecture entitled “Picturing Aging: The View From a Geriatrician.”  The talk presented my portfolio of images of aging, and discussed the relationship between art and growing old.  It was

Given the subject matter it is fitting that my last cover on The Gerontologist came out in time for the Spring holidays.  I’ve been looking back on my 20 years of covers on TG and blogging on themes that ran through the images.  This post presents

A recent cover of The Gerontologist features a musician at the local Octoberfest, a yearly block party that celebrates the German immigrant heritage of my neighborhood in Manhattan that is now only a memory. TG is the flagship journal of the Gerontological Society of America, the

What could be less intuitive than a shrinking medical specialty in the face of surging demand? A recent New York Times article discussed the growing shortage of geriatricians in America. Despite the fact that there are more older Americans than any time in history, there are only

In 2010 the closing of St. Vincents Hospital in Manhattan gifted me with time to indulge my wanderlust, and so I went to Lake Titicaca in the Bolivian highlands of South America to celebrate the winter solstice with the shamans. The Gerontologist just published a cover

I was thrilled when the American Geriatrics Society contacted me seeking images for the program cover of next year’s annual meeting. I spent hours flipping through my portfolio and found several suitable shots. Gradually I realized that to represent aging in America I would need a

I really like my latest cover on The Gerontologist as it expresses the essence of frailty in old age and the process of caring. I took this picture on a trip to San Antonio in 2012, at a nursing home called Buena Vida Nursing & Rehabilitation

The Gerontologist (TG) has published my photographs on the cover since 1995. The image on the recent June/July issue features an aging biker named Zip taken in South Dakota at the Sturgis motorcycle rally. I went there in August of 2011 in my continued quest to document

In May 2012 I traveled to Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia to photograph aging and gain better understanding of international differences in how people grow old.  I was amazed to learn the extent that elders are revered in traditional Kyrgyz society.  The collapse of the Soviet Union