Laura Kvecė is the photographer from Kaunas, Lithuania whose series of pictures focuses on gray-haired woman. The author is asking the question „Is the woman’s confidence related to hair color?“ (Pilkà in Lithuanian stands for grayness)
The project addresses three important themes: Women, aging and naturalness. All three teams are disclosed in parallel in each picture of the cycle – all of them are inseparable from one another. Exploration of different topics related to femininity has been inherent with the movement for women’s rights since the first. Today, they remain relevant and difficult.
“I want to believe that the old age is gray inside only on the outside, whereas inside it is blindingly white“, says Laura Kvecė. The author says that by this project she aimed to learn the old age better, to tame it. In a society like ours, it so common to hide the signs of the old age appearing on the body. Huge efforts are made to push the process of the aging into the future. “While old age a natural phenomenon, we all fear it and we all lie to ourselves. The cult of youth and distorted beauty norms force women to feel shame for natural gray hair. Hair is among of the most important details of female image, so coloring gray hair is such a omnipresent reaction to attempt to look younger “- says author of „PILKÀ“.
Portrayed women are looking to the viewer overtly confidently – they are also onfident to face their old age. Women’s faces are full of wrinkles and skin imperfections, survived aches seem to be reflected in them. Their gazes are open, they want to tell the stories, as if they all are saying – “And what have I to fear after all these years?”
