©Sara Bennett, RYFKA FINKELSTEIN, 95, Cherry Hill, NJ (2023)

I don’t feel old in my head. I’m happy I wasn’t caught by the Germans and I wasn’t killed and I survived. Dying? I wanted to die, but I didn’t want to be killed. I survived. It’s good to be alive. – Ryks Finkelstein

Sara Bennett has a long legacy of documenting populations of women, in particular, women with life sentences, both inside and outside prison, as a way to draw attention to the problems of mass incarceration. Her newest effort, On Their Own: Women Over 90,  is more personal, but still an important segment of womanhood that is also unseen or overlooked. After losing her mother at the age of 93, Bennett began to consider the lives of women who are at the end of their journeys, allowing us some insights into the minds and the homes of nonagenarians (a person between 90 and 99). Accompanied by a quote given by the subject, she documents a group of women still very much alive, with remarkable histories, that are navigating the realities of living a long, long time.

©Sara Bennett, FRANCES BALLANTYNE, 98, New York, NY (2023)

I force myself to have structure in my life. For instance, sometimes I wake up in the morning, and I think I’d like to stay in bed. And instead, I say to myself that I’m wasting the time given to me and I make myself get up. I make myself dress every single day. Not just throw on something. Then I try to figure out what I’m going to do that day. I do a lot of knitting and listening to books on tape. I also have about five people who read to me, either over the phone or in person so I have a lot of books going at once. I’ve always been a reader. I will not feel sorry for myself even though I am unable to do what I want to do when I want to do it. Because circumstances in my life have changed. I accept them. I certainly try to be as positive as I can and not be negative about what’s going on. And I try very hard to be as grateful for the life I’ve had or been given. That’s about all I can say. – Frances Ballantyne

On Their Own: Women Over 90

After my mother died at the age of 93, independent and healthy until the last few days of her life, I began thinking more about women of her age who live alone, have outlived their partners and most of their friends, and do not want to be uprooted. Despite our ongoing conversations and despite my awareness that our time together was not endless, there were so many aspects of my mother’s life that are still mysterious to me. And so I set out to meet women of her generation — women over the age of ninety who live alone. By photographing them and listening to their stories, I am trying to capture something personal to me and universal to all of us.

©Sara Bennett, CARMEN LOPEZ, 93, New York, NY (2023)

Dios está conmigo en este momento y me da fuerza. – Carmen Lopez

Sara Bennett, a 2024 Guggenheim fellow, is a former public defender who primarily photographs women with life sentences, both inside and outside prison, as a way to draw attention to the problems of mass incarceration. Her work has been widely exhibited in museums and galleries, including group shows at Blanton Museum of Art’s Day Jobs, MoMA PS1’s Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration and the Museum of the City of New York’s New York Now: Home, and at solo shows including the Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon, Photoville in Brooklyn, New York, and Rotterdam Photo 2023. Her work is in the collection of, among others, the John Hays Library at Brown University and the Museum of the City of New York, and has been featured in such publications as The New York Times, The New Yorker Photo Booth, and Variety & Rolling Stone’s American (In)Justice. She was the 2023 Emerging Laureate of the International Women in Photo Association. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Instagram: @sarabennettbrooklyn

©Sara Bennett, CLARA VILLAROSA, 92, New York, NY (2023)

I don’t spend my time well anymore. I wish I could do something, but I don’t really want to work anymore. – Clara Villarosa

©Sara Bennett, DORIS PALCA, 97, New York, NY (2023)

Aging has definitely narrowed my horizons. I don’t feel surefooted anymore and I carry a walking stick. Going to the theatre is almost out of the question – getting there and finding a taxi home is very difficult. On the other hand, my brain still works surprisingly well and I’m grateful. – Doris Palca

©Sara Bennett, FRANCES GAROFALLO, 95, Brooklyn, NY (2023)

I was never a home person, you know. Unfortunately, I never had children. And so I was always out. But now I’m at home as a prisoner. I can’t just open the door and get out and do things. The whole thing is very discouraging for me, because I was always a very active person. And I feel like I’m just not getting any exercise, not even exercise for the brain.” – Frances Garofallo

©Sara Bennett, GRACE FAISON, 98, Brooklyn NY (2023)

My mantra is: “we’re all connected, we need each other and we can’t do it alone.” The secret to aging is friendship, not casual friends but real friends. Because loneliness is a sadness. – Grace Faison

©Sara Bennett, BETTY MOSEDALE, 90, New York, NY (2023)

It’s hard when you realize that your life is reduced, that there are things that you used to do easily are hard to do. You have to work around that and you have to enjoy the things that still give you pleasure. And there are always things that you can find that give you pleasure, sometimes tiny things. So far, that’s where I am. – Betty Mosedale

©Sara Bennett, LYNN MINTON, 91, New York, NY (2023)

At my age, one’s life is depeopled–you look around for a friend or colleague andthey’re gone. If you’re lucky, and I’m very lucky–you might be healthy and strong (this minute, this day) and have a loving family and close friends who’ve survived along with you—and YOU can feel warmed by the memory of past loves and the pleasures of rewarding work. Resilience is crucial and, of course, an optimistic nature with which to view what’s ahead – Lynn Minton

©Sara Bennett, MARGOT GREEN, 90, New York, NY (2023)

Most people my age just sort of drift along, go to dinner, see their friends. I have made it a point to stay very active physically and mentally. Before COVID I would say I was agile, but I have much more flexibility now. I started two virtual exercise classes every day and I still take them. Truthfully, I do not like to exercise. I can’t wait for the class to be over. There isn’t a day that I don’t want it to be over. I’m being honest. But I know what it does for me. – Margot Green

NANCY SPARROW, 94, New York, NY (2024)

Weaver, dancer, devoted civil rights and community activist, made my life full and meaningful. With gratitude and love for family and friends and inspiration and love from my life partner and husband, Jim Bartow. -Nancy Sparrow

©Sara Bennett, NINA SHUKA KIPPEL, 94, New York, NY (2023)

It’s a shapeless, formless time. I wish, that there were some more substantial things to do. It’s ridiculous. I mean, I do still have some abilities. And I shouldn’t be just sitting here letting it all just melt away – Nina Shuka Kippel