Courtesy of The Mennonite, Nov. 30, 2014.
When Molly Kraybill was a senior photography major at Eastern Mennonite University (EMU), Harrisonburg, Va., she photographed women ages 1 to 100 for her senior art show, “One Hundred.”
On Nov. 30, the project was picked up by the website “Hello Giggles,” a positive online community founded by celebrity Zooey Deschanel.
The show originally premiered on April 20, 2013, in the Margaret Martin Gehman art gallery at EMU and is now on display at Landis Homes in Lititz, Pa. Kraybill is from Lancaster, Pa.
How many of your subjects are Mennonite? I would say at least 95 percent of my subjects were Mennonite because I used Landis Homes and Virginia Mennonite Retirement home for my older ages, and used Lancaster and EMU friends and family for the rest.
Tell us the story behind the project. I started the project in January 2013 as my senior photography project for EMU. I finished it that April, just in time for my gallery exhibit that all senior photography students are required to do. I displayed my show in the Margaret Martin Gehman Gallery at EMU in April 2013 but I haven’t shown it until recently when Landis Homes asked me to display it in their gallery for their 50th year anniversary. It is hanging in their Harvest View gallery until the end of January.
What was the most challenging aspect? Finding all 100 females was the most challenging part of this project. I had to tap into all of my communities (family, school, church) to find my subjects, and even then I still had a hard time finding certain ages. There were points when I doubted I would have a completed series. But the word spread that I was looking for certain ages, and I was touched by how many women, some complete strangers, stepped forward to be photographed, or pass along an email to their friends. The project very quickly became a testament to the connectedness of the Mennonite community.
What did you learn? This project taught me to see aging as a beautiful process. One of my subjects described aging as a “crescendo” of a gradual increase of wisdom and life experiences. That analogy resonates with me and makes me excited to age.
Will you put the project online? I have only about 10 or so of the photos online. I’ve had numerous requests for online versions, but I’ve made the decision to keep them as a series only in the printed version.