In this interview, professional photographer Anna Epp reveals what she has learned about self esteem and feminism from photographing the portraits of more than 300 women over 50.
Professional portrait photographer Anna Epp joins Sherrilynne Starkie in the first ever episode of the 50 Women Over 50 podcast, to discuss life in their fifth decade.
Anna provided inspiration for this podcast with her own project in which she set out to photograph 50 women over 50 before her own 50th birthday.
While the pandemic put pay to that deadline, Anna did eventually reach her goal of 50 portraits, plus a whole lot more. She’s now photographed more than 300 women and has learned a lot along the way about women and self confidence. She says that many of her subjects were brimming with confidence while others had lost it. Part of the project was about supporting women in recovering their sense of self as well as helping many to find it for the first time.
As for life after 50?Anna says she no longer has time for any ‘ridiculousness’. She now understands what she wants in life and won’t let that be compromised. Her advice to other women is to learn to forgive yourself and move on. She says, “Have the wisdom to accept that you’ve made a mistake or failed in some way, learn from and go forward with a smile on your face.”
Anna knew at an early age she wanted to be a photographer. Purchasing her first camera at age 12, she started documenting family, friends and school activities. She founded Anna Epp Photography some 13 years ago and has never looked back. She’s photographed thousands of people over the course of her highly successful career. She believes that portraits empower people and having one in your home raises your personal self esteem.
Sherrilynne Starkie started this show as a creative project with the goal of interviewing 50 women past their 50th birthday to learn how they see the world, what lessons they’ve learned and what advice they have for us all. She’s been blogging and podcasting for 18+ years as part of a successful marketing and communications career and looks forward to learning from the women she will interview.
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What follows is a machine generated transcript. It may contain errors and is not a substitue for listening to the podcast.
50 Women Over 50
[00:00:00] Sherrilynne: Hello, and welcome to the first ever episode of 50 women 50 a podcast for women whose personal confidence. Is born of experience. I'm your host, Sherrilynne Starkie.
During my fifties, I learned a lot about myself and about the world. I surprised myself too. Upon entering my fifth decade. I had no idea I'd become a grandmother, a long-distance runner.
Or solopreneur, and yet I've done all these things. And of course, I never dreamed that this decade would have the whole world sheltering in place and living in isolation for months. This left me missing spending time with women my own age. I'm curious About how Experiencing life. And I want to learn from my peers.
That's why I'm doing this Women over 50 My goal is to interview 50 women to learn how they see the world what lessons they've learned And what advice they have for us all And I could not have kicked off this project with any other guests than the fantastic Yep. I first met Photographer ana On twitter more than a decade ago when I lived on a little island in the middle of the Irish sea. And she was splitting her time between Canada and the USA. Now we live a couple of miles apart just south of Ottawa And back in 2020, just a few weeks before You know what It happened Anna announced the launch, We Have a very special project also called 50 women over 50. and I was among the first of her subjects She's my inspiration for this podcast project and in this interview, she shares what she learned about life from photographing 50 women over 50.
Welcome Anna Epp to the podcast. I'm so happy that you are
[00:02:02] Anna: here today. Thank you so much. I'm very excited to be here.
[00:02:07] Sherrilynne: So, for listeners, you're all new listeners, because this is my very first episode. I wanted Anna to be, my very first guest because. This whole idea of 50 women over 50 started with one of Anna's projects that I participated in, in pre COVID times.
I think you actually delivered the photographs to me during COVID, but we did the shoot just before the big
[00:02:30] Anna: lockdown. Yeah. I think actually we delivered the photos the day before the lockdown. Okay. started. It was the Thursday. Yeah. We met at the coffee. Oh, that's right.
And everything's shut down. Yeah, that's right the next day.
[00:02:45] Sherrilynne: So, Anna and I have known each other for, oh, I think like about 10 years or so now online. I mean, we knew each other before I moved back from the UK and yesterday was my. 11th anniversary of having moved back to Canada.
When I moved out to mantic, I think it's, like eight years ago, we finally got to meet in person and, been friends ever since. And when I saw your 50, over 50, project, I was like, I want to be part of that. So, can you remind us all, what, what that project was?
[00:03:16] Anna: So, I initially I started the project on my 49th birthday.
I was looking for a way to celebrate turning 50 the following year. And it, a girlfriend of mine was doing a similar project in California, and she was like, you need to run with this and do it up in Canada. So, I tweaked it a little bit for my. Self and, it became a 50 or a 50, so I launched it, around the end of November in 2019.
And the idea was to have to photograph 50 women over 50 by my 50th birthday. So, everything was going really, really well and I actually pretty much sold it out by the end of February in 2020, I started photographing at the end of January. And you were one of the first people I photographed and then everything shut down.
So, everything was put on hold, but nobody left the project. Right. So, I was super excited about that. We just kept going, everybody just willingly moved their kinds to when we could meet again. Mm-hmm and I did one year worth of work in six months. Oh. It was a lot of work, but I loved it.
Like it was great. And then. I kept it open because some of the ladies were nervous to come that first year. So, I actually had it half sold for the next year. So, I had to keep going and so roll into the next year. And then now I'm on my third year and, I still have some spots left to fulfill this year.
[00:04:50] Sherrilynne: And how many women over 50 have you photographed? So. 130. Oh, fantastic.
[00:04:57] Anna: I think. Yeah. And I've so many amazing women, like, and there was a
[00:05:02] Sherrilynne: fundraiser associated with this wasn't there.
[00:05:04] Anna: Yes. So, we haven't done our gala yet, which I am actually planning right now. And I hope to send out an email steam to everybody.
So, the idea behind it is, a portion of the sales, is going to, the cancer foundation. So, our initial, gallery event was going to be at the foundation, location. They've closed that to public now. So, it's going to be somewhere else.
But yes, a portion of everything is going to work out
[00:05:32] Sherrilynne: so, you started this project the year. You were 49. So, but tell me, what did your 50th birthday
[00:05:37] Anna: look. He's a little sad I mean, I made it amazing. We were back in restrictions again. And so, there was no having a party. So, I just made sure that I made it really fun.
I had, lots of calls from friends. I had flowers sent, I had dinner planned that I made myself, but it's my favorite dinner, so that's okay. So, we just stayed exposed home. It was spent with family and lots of, I think I put out a little video to say thank you to all. 50 over 50 ladies, if not on my birthday, very close to it, but it was an emotional day because it was supposed to be a bigger celebration.
But as with so many people, we just had to roll with it. And one day we'll celebrate really big.
[00:06:24] Sherrilynne: Yeah. A couple of women of my acquaintance, had a similar experience for their plan, a big for 50th birthday blowout, like a world travel or a big, big party or something. And like none of Manhattan, a couple I know though, it's like, they're 52 53 now.
And, and they're actually doing it now and telling everybody it's their 50th
[00:06:40] Anna: birthday. exactly. So, some of the ladies in the project have done that very thing either. They, because they couldn't go on their 50th. The portraits and are now going or, they'd come and done them this year as part of their I'm celebrating for a whole year this year.
Cause I didn't get to celebrate from my 50th. So, it's been fun like that. So, I've had a, a good variety of ages, but definitely those 50 where they didn't get to do something. And so, they're. Doing a year of me. And part of it includes participating in this project.
[00:07:13] Sherrilynne: So apart from, you know, the obvious COVID surprise that we all, experienced what surprised you most about life after 50
[00:07:24] Anna: that people don't think I'm 50.
I think that I honestly feel like that's the biggest surprise that I, would tell people how old I am. They're often like really like I, and I'm always like really in a good way, really in a bad way. And they're definitely no good way. I would never guess you were even posted 50. So that's like my biggest surprise because after you spend 50 years on this earth, you, you might not feel it, feel it, but you still feel.
So, what do you mean feel it, well, you might look in the mirror and go, yeah, I'm not as young as I used to, or you see a photograph of yourself and it's next to one of you 20 years ago, or, or you see an old photo from 20 years ago and you say, wow, that was like 20 years ago. But yeah, it's like, You
[00:08:11] Sherrilynne: remind me of, a friend of mine sent me a photo recently.
He was doing some cleaning out. He found a picture of me at his wedding and sent it to me. And I thought I remember wearing that dress. And I thought I was so fat in it. I would give anything now, anything to
[00:08:25] Anna be able to fit into that dress. Yes. I, I know that feeling and a lot of women have that feeling, right.
Some ladies though have taken this opportunity, especially during COVID to like totally. Change that. And so, they're like, I never was able to wear that dress. So now I'm wearing it.
. So how did
[00:08:44] Sherrilynne: turning 50 change your life
[00:08:48] Anna: I don't know that it's changed my life yet. Mm-hmm If anything, I just am surer of myself. Interesting. I, a lot of women do say that, but I definitely feel it. Like I don't have time for, ridiculousness anymore, if that's even a word I just feel like I'm sure of myself.
I know what I want. And I won't let that be compromised. Other people's opinions, which I think I spent more of my younger years, like wanting to make sure I did stuff for other people and not enough time doing stuff for me.
[00:09:21] Sherrilynne: So, confidence born of experience.
[00:09:23] Anna: Yeah. Yeah. I, that's a good way to say it.
. So yeah, like maybe we just spent too much time worrying about all that. And we get to this point where we're like, why are we worried? Like let's own it. Yeah. And part of my confidence has come through working with a lot of these women, the last two and a half years.
Cause I mean, I've met women from ages 50 all the way to 80 and I've heard their stories and a lot of them are like, oh yeah, I had no confidence all my life. And here I am. And I'm like, let's give back to you then. And so maybe some of it comes from the fact that I've met people that didn't have that confidence and I've helped give it back to them.
I do feel blessed with all these women I've met because they all have a story. There's different stories for everybody, whether it's something like that or changing their life or starting a new chapter or a new business or retiring, it's like there's other reason to do this session for them.
It's celebrating something. Marking a chapter. And so, each one of those stories, I take in and I work with, and I that's how I, that's how I get good photographs of people, listen to their stories, chat with them. And then you draw that out and people look fabulous.
[00:10:36] Sherrilynne: Tell me how people ended up using the photographs, the
[00:10:39] Anna: portraits that you shot.
So, some people use them for their business. Like somebody I know. And then some it's a personal thing. So, some people have them hung at their homes. So, in my business, everybody receives a printed portrait with their image, because I, I have a true believer of printed portraits.
We don't know whatever's going to happen with digital. So, while digital has become a great thing in the world, it change. So, if you look back, you know, we had floppy drives and then we had thumb drives and now we're out to like cloud drives, but you never know, like I might be able to access that, is it going to go away?
So, when you look through a pile of photograph from your grandparents, it's paper, some of those are like a hundred years old. So, you know, they're going to last the past of. So having a printed portrait is always important to me. So, a lot of the ladies will, display them or they'll give them to their kids.
It's
[00:11:44] Sherrilynne: funny. You mentioned that. Yeah, because I gave to, I framed one of the portraits that you did to me, to my granddaughter. Who at the time was seven and she keeps it at her bedside table. And sometimes at night she puts it in bed with her to sleep. So, she could sleep with her Nanny. Oh. And, and when she travels, which she doesn't do a lot, but when she does, she brings it with her.
So, she could put it up at her bedside table.
[00:12:08] Anna: Oh, see. So that's great. So, you're, you are with her in a portrait. Yeah. It's not, she doesn't have to open a phone. She doesn't have to look on a computer. She has. Yeah. I mean, there is a lost art of people printing photograph.
[00:12:23] Sherrilynne: Yeah. And I think with the news over this last week, right, with the, the passing of, queen Elizabeth second, we're seeing the power of the nostalgia, the feelings of.
Love that we're getting from, looking at older photographs. I know that my, my husband pulled out. He has a big annual of the coronation that his mother had given to him and he pulled it out and we were going through it this week and all the photographs of the, the queen from when she was a child to when she was, crown, it
[00:12:50] Anna was, they were really powerful actually.
Amazing. And so, I, I feel, and I could be totally wrong, but this is my personal opinion that somewhere in the digital era, we lost that because people are so quick to flip through. But when you sit down with an album or a book, or just a box of photographs and you flip through them, it comes back mm-hmm
So, there is a thing about holding that portrait in your hand or photographing your hand or having. On a wall or on a table and people lost that or young kids don't know that. Yeah. They don't know it. And so that's quite important. A lot of people don't hang big portraits anymore, although we should, but even having like a table with portraits or pictures in frames, people should do that more.
They really should. I agree. I agree. So, some of the ladies I have met who they're like, I haven't had my picture taken since my wedding. Oh my God. And I'm like, well, we need to change that because, and they're like, I don't like the way I look.
So, I have to prove to them, they look fantastic. And I tell them that just bring something fabulous to wear. That's the number one thing I say is whatever you're wearing, you must feel fabulous wearing it because then we're halfway to the perfect portrait.
[00:14:09] Sherrilynne: Yes. Yes. Clothes really do make a big difference.
And make, that's one thing during COVID like, I got out of the habit of wearing makeup, you know, if I had a zoom cold, a client be like, oh,
[00:14:22] Anna: I on makeup today. But,
[00:14:26] Sherrilynne: now that we're out about life a little bit more kind of things are starting to return to normal in that, in that
[00:14:31] Anna: vein. Yeah. And so, see, I'm the opposite.
I didn't stop wearing makeup during COVID right. I made sure that every day I still get up, I still put my makeup on. I might have been wearing yoga outfit for a little bit while I was actually trying to do yoga to because we weren't going anywhere. I'm like, I got to keep moving. Right. So, but that only lasted a very short stint, probably that first two weeks, right?
Yeah. You know, you wanted to be in comfort clothes, but I still put my makeup on every day. And it's, it, I feel that that was important to me in feeling good. That's it's okay. If they look messy, I teach look put together.
[00:15:09] Sherrilynne: What advice would you give to your 30-year-old self?
[00:15:13] Anna: Never give up. Hmm. Do you feel that you
gave up on stuff when you were in your thirties?
I think I. Yeah. I, I gave up opportunities to be a professional photographer back then.
Okay. Cause I always was worried about it, and I was like, oh, I'm not going to be good enough. Or nobody's going to want to have their pictures taken. I, I really, really didn't give myself enough credit. Right. And so, picking it up
[00:15:45] Sherrilynne: later, 20 years later, Well established business, well known right across the whole national capital area.
Really. Everybody knows Ana. And
what do you feel most hopeful about in the.
[00:15:58] Anna: I want to say peace on earth, but my hope of that is a little bit dwindling these days. So, my hope is that we do have a, my hope is that my children have an amazing world to live in. I feel that we were had a really great mm-hmm. Growing up in the seventies. Eighties was weird if you look back on it, but we had some pretty good times and it, I don't remember other than maybe late eighties, a little bit being worried.
And I feel like my kids had gone through like a pandemic now, different things happening between our city and the countries around us and across the ocean. So, they're worried and I'd like them to not. Yes. I'd like them be able to live in a world that's peaceful and happy, and that everybody get along.
Cause you know, the world is a beautiful place and I just wish that everybody could just get along. totally agree. Totally agree.
[00:16:58] Sherrilynne: I mean, what you say about the time that we were growing up is right. Like what, no world wars, you know, no depressions, no, you know, we had some wars, but we weren't like sending.
You know, everybody under the age of 25, you know, like our pre generations have been through. So, I, I do think that we really, and the economic prosperity that we enjoyed, like unprecedented in the history of men really. And I, I too, I agree with you. I, I hope that this, what we're experiencing right now is a blip
Yeah. And, that things soon get back on track so that the young people can grow up and flourish. You know, enjoy their time on this earth without a
[00:17:40] Anna: lot of hardship and yeah, worry. I know that's a heavy subject, but when you talk about hope, that's truly what I hope for. Just, I mean, world peace would be beautiful, but don't know that we can get that far in 10 years, but like, you know, if our younger kids or younger generations can actually speak up and, because if you talk to the younger kids, they don't necessarily want to be part of any of.
And it's a lot of older people out there wanting to fight stuff. Right. So, if you just talk to the kids and they want just to live life and be happy, so let's help them. Yes. Have that. Yeah.
[00:18:19] Sherrilynne: So, we've got some time for the, for the quick round. Okay. Questions.
[00:18:24] Anna: So,
[00:18:24] Sherrilynne: oh dear. We'll fast off the top of your head.
Just tell me what comes to mind. And then if it doesn’t. Sound right. We'll cut it out in the edit. okay. okay. So, what are you reading, watching, or binging right now
[00:18:40] Anna: reading? I was reading, beach reads because I was just at the beach, and I hadn't read a book in all during COVID that wasn't business related. So, I was reading a, a Hilton brand.
I'm going to say her name, wrong. Ellen Hillenbrand, Mary, Mary Kay Andrews. So, they write all sorts of fun, little beach reads. So, I consumed three of those in the last couple months. And it's restored me again business wise. I don't know if I can say this on air, but, you're a bad something at making money.
Being perfect. Yeah. I can say badass. Okay. I, the badass series by Jen Gerald okay. But I've been reading her. I do. And it's funny because I, I I've read several of them now, but I also got into audio books and so I listen to her when I'm driving sometimes and I'm having like, I mean, motivational day I'll like throw her on or, get rich, lucky.
Be. It's another, she's Australian, I'm blanking on her name. Again, her, book's great to listen to you if you're going for a long drive. Sometimes I have to not sometimes once a week, I have to do when I lawn, which takes about few and a half hours. So, when I'm writing the chapter, I throw in a book in my ears, and I listen to stuff, and I dry around.
And I think about it all the different things they're saying, and I absorb it. Then put it into play. So, I enjoy those. I wonder if that's a
[00:20:13] Sherrilynne: fifties thing. Cause I, like, I started listening to audio books in my fifties too. And that it was mostly because I couldn't see anymore to read and reading became a lot more work for me because of the box.
So, it, prior to that, my, my reading time was bedtime. Right. Get in bed and read. Half an hour and then like, it didn't work anymore. Cause I'd fall asleep with my glasses on.
[00:20:37] Anna: Okay. So that's the same for me. And that's how it started.
[00:20:40] Sherrilynne: What charity are you currently supporting or volunteering
[00:20:43] Anna: for? Right now. Okay. I mean, I still am working with the cancer one for our 50 or 50, but I don't have, I haven't actually been doing a lot.
Mm-hmm I should get working too hard. You working too hard? Well, I truly have been working a lot. yeah. I have very little, extra room at the moment. So, once things settle down a bit. Yes.
[00:21:09] Sherrilynne: Again, similar to me, just so busy throughout the whole pandemic, no time for fun or volunteering all my career.
I've always held two volunteer, positions at any time, you know, I'd switched them up every two or three years or so, but. Yeah, during the pandemic. I just, although I still volunteer for my professional association, the IC that's the only, the only thing that I've really done. And even to find time to do this podcast, which is a creative project, not a business project.
I had to wait for a client to wrap up a project. what it's funny is she's like, try to let me down, like, we're, we're going to stop doing this now. I was like,
[00:21:47] Anna: yay. you have some time? Yeah. I, I think I also, because pandemic, we weren't going anywhere. So how could I go volunteer somewhere? Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I really should do I, I mean, pre pandemic every year I volunteered with the run for the cure.
Yeah. That's something that I did every year. I did a lot of volunteer stuff with the mental health. Right. So, I, I should look and see what's going on. I mean, really this is our first year back to having events
[00:22:18] Sherrilynne: what app could you not live without?
[00:22:24] Anna: Okay. So, I hate saying it out loud, but Facebook, why do you
[00:22:29] Sherrilynne: hate saying
[00:22:29] Anna: that out loud? Because they're going to hear me because I shouldn't like Facebook, but I do, but I don't. And it could let me, I could live without it obviously, but I get my information there. I get updates from people, or I can update people, find people, or look up people.
So. That's the one I'm on the most. Although I did go back to Twitter this year, right. I took a very long break and it's been interesting. Twitter's definitely different than when we first started. which I think of how we first met. Yeah.
[00:23:03] Sherrilynne: When you and I first met you darn right. It's different.
I'm totally online with you about this. Like I have totally backed away from Twitter. And now I don't use it for information. I only use it to check up on my friends.
[00:23:17] Anna: Yeah. So that's what I used. Facebook is like that. And Twitter, it went back because I was missing some of the news pieces, but it's just, it used to be a very happy place in 140 characters.
And now it's like it's, it's turned into a place where everybody complains about something and mob the mob
[00:23:36] Sherrilynne: mentality there. Yeah. To help a couple of clients out with that kind of situation
[00:23:42] Anna: yeah. So, it's that mob mentality or like people are hiding behind. Fake names or whatever, which, I mean, when we all started, we, we had different handles and stuff, but I do, somebody mentioned the other day, I wonder what people would say if they had to use their real names.
Yeah. And I was like, why are we not forcing people to use real names now? What is this that you can make a name with like random numbers and years, some kind of whatever like that, that is probably. Social media needs to get back. Is that yeah.
[00:24:12] Sherrilynne: Well, cause Facebook has Al always forced that, that you have to use your, your
[00:24:16] Anna: real name.
Well, not at the beginning. cause I was beach mama on Facebook too, but they started talking about that. So, I made the change to my real name.
[00:24:27] Sherrilynne: Right, right. Yeah. See, I've always been Sherry Lynn, because I figure it's not that common a name, so I don't need to make the name stand out
[00:24:36] Anna: so yeah, no and, and I was more.
I had been in business for quite a few years, and I said to my girlfriend, I'm like, I don't know what to, she goes like, Right now you're going on there.
You're changing it to your name. I was like, okay, you answered it for me.
[00:24:49] Sherrilynne: I gave similar advice to a client just last week when she's like, I don't know what I'm going to call my new company. I said, why don't you call it your name? yeah, because that's what you're selling is you
[00:25:00] Anna: as professional. Like, I couldn't talk about work on that the same. And even now I don't necessarily cross over. Just cause I don't want to break rules. You're not supposed to sell your business on your personal page. But if people look me up, they will know it's me. Mm-hmm and not be like, who's this speech mama and who's this photographer.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. She can't be professional if she's speech mama, but I can't be, but yeah, that's I did change it back or change it to my real name.
[00:25:27] Sherrilynne: Is there an over 50 life hack that you'd like to share
[00:25:31] Anna: Always be happy. Life's too short to be Grumpy. I think that's my life hack life too short to be grumpy, like get up in the morning. And if you're having a little bit of a bad morning, just turn it around, give yourself something to do to turn around, look at the sunrise.
If you're too late for that, go sit outside. Going outside. Always makes you feel better. Think happy thoughts. Disney said it. Best think happy thoughts. And you can change that and have a great day something. I, I don't even remember where I heard this, and this goes back few years. I was in my twenties.
When I heard this, you're having a bad day force yourself to smile. Yes. By the time you keep forcing yourself to smile in a little while you're smiling. Cause then you don't remember why you're grumpy. And it just turns things around because smiling actually triggers endorphins and happiness in you. So, if you're just like angry, just smile and just the more you do it, the more you actually.
[00:26:33] Sherrilynne: It's so true. I read something about this. It has something to do with neuroscience. When you, when your face, isn't a smile, your brain reads it as happiness. And so yeah, it is you fake it till you make it right. You, yeah.
[00:26:45] Anna: So even now, like a lot of, I can't speak for men, but a lot of women get grumpy when they're older.
Oh yeah. Men do too. But. We're talking to women here.
[00:26:53] Sherrilynne: That's a whole different podcast.
[00:26:55] Anna: That's a whole different story. Yeah. So, we're talking about women here. So, a lot of women, you do get grumpy. You’re mad because you missed out on something or whatever. You're mad at yourself for whatever reason, forgive yourself, put on a happy face, change your day and it it'll get better.
[00:27:13] Sherrilynne: Where can people reach you? App com www.annaapp.com. They can email me Anna, anna.com. They can phone me. I love the vote. 6 1 3 7 9 7 6 8 1 8.
I'm Anna app on Facebook. perfect. I'm the Anna app on my other social media.
I will have all those, all those contacts in the show notes, so, okay, Anna, thank you so much for coming on my show. I'm super excited for this project. I can't wait to talk to women, from all different walks of life, all different kinds of jobs about their experience of being over 50 years old and, glad that you were able to help me
[00:27:55] Anna: kick it.
You're welcome. My pleasure. I'm honored to be the first honored.
[00:28:02] Sherrilynne: And there you have it. The. The first episode of 50. Women over 50 a podcast for women whose personal confidence. Is born of experience. Thank you to professional photographer and app for joining me today. And don't forget to check out the show notes for links to Anna's photography project and her socials.
I've got 49 more interviews with some fabulous women coming up. So don't miss an episode. Subscribe to this podcast today. And if you have a second, please. please drop me a rating or a review You on apple or wherever You get your podcasts Let's connect and create a whole community of wise women over 50, by sharing a link to the show with your friends and your connections See you next time on 50 women over 50. I'm your host Sherrilynne Starkie.