Kseniya Storoschuk is a sixteen-year old school student, who took part in the femLENS documentary photography workshops in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, in October 2018.

Old Age

Why did I want to talk about old age? One day, I was next to my grandfather and grandmother thinking that I would also grow old some day, but my old age will be completely different. My generation of old people will be very different from the present, and what if they forget about this generation?

I take these photos in the hope that one day someone will take photos of me and I will be able to compare and maybe see if it’s better or not.

I also asked my grandparents about what they think about life earlier and now.

Grandmother could not answer, but grandfather spoke for a long time:

“Before, of course, it was better to live. People were more fun. Youth, songs, people went to visit each other’s homes. And now? Two cripples on the whole corner, and three of the youngsters that are here are trying to figure out how to escape from here… I’d be walking home, and there’d be a crowd with me, we could walk and sing songs, until the morning came. We’d go fishing together every Sunday, women also went to visit someone every evening. And now where will you see this? Someone came out from behind the door, looked around like a mouse, and quickly started rushing down the street to catch the bus.”