The Seniors Home

This collection of photographs is part of a larger cycle, documenting life in social welfare institutions. It came into being in the first half of the 1980s, at a request of the Ministry  of Labout and Social Welfare. In it, I have attempted to present a testimony about the end of people’s lives in old people’s homes. In order for this testimonz to be as objective as possible, I visted several of these houses in different parts of Bohemia. It was not my aim to prepare a sociological study. What interested mewere the relationships between people, their feelings about staying in the homes without having any privacy. Through close personal contact I came to know the stories of many people’s lives. I felt touched by human loneliness and powerlessness, wating for death as release from hopelessness. Many things around us have changed recently. The problem of old age however remains.