Marna Clarke

We had been together for 20 years, starting when I was 62 and he was 73. We had enjoyed good health, our morning coffee together, building a fire and watching the daily evening news, dancing. We were artists, he an architect and oil painter, and I a photographer. Occasionally I would think about getting older trying to imagine what I would look like. I began photographing myself to get a full sense of what I looked like front, back, sideways, clothed and naked. At some point, I began to photograph us together in our daily lives. As the years passed, I noticed the changes in our appearances…we were growing old. I was sublimating my scary, unpleasant feelings about aging and dying into images of the two of us as we slowly moved into old age.

I documented those 2 decades we had together, right up until 2022, when at age 93, Igor passed away. Nothing was easy, not the months leading up to his death and decline, not the daily care, not even the moments of togetherness because we knew what was coming, but photographing the journey brought on an intimacy that wasn’t like anything I’d ever experienced. I’m realizing now that it was an honor and a gift to walk him home.