The Lovers is a photographic series of couples that have shared theirlives for more than 50 years. Inspired by a love letter written by LaurenFleishman’s grandfather to her grandmother early in their marriage,Lauren was moved to find more intertwined souls like theirs. Throughcolour photographs, voice recordings and text, she documents thestories of intimacy and commitment of elderly couples across theUnited States and Europe.As a photographer, Lauren Fleishman has always been attracted to thebeauty of love and lovers. Her project extends this attraction to adomain that is largely unexplored, and more importantly, not welldocumented visually. Like her other work, this project addresses bothartistic and documentary angles: sociology and the human geographyof emotions, as well as the aesthetics of the body. In this work, colourphotographs are combined with interviews where the subjects, elderlycouples intimately involved for over five decades, describe their loveand relationship. Couples from different backgrounds provide a lookat the realities of love: how the previous generation experienced it,survived it, and, more importantly, how it appears in their lives. Thebody politics of the project become especially clear when gay andlesbian couples or couples with ill spouses are considered. In thisrespect, Fleishman’s pictures play a central role in addressinghomophobia and increasing awareness of age-related issues.The visual aspect of the project is complemented with the verypersonal interviews with the couples. Lauren Fleishman considersthese an indispensable part of the work, always conducted before shetakes the photograph. It is this process of remembering that can bringout a deep tenderness in the couples. As they speak, it is as if they areweaving their own love stories.For Fleishman, working with these couples often feels like a lastchance to do this together. Her personal relationship to this project isbased on personal experience; after her grandfather’s death, shefound a series of love letters written to her grandmother during theSecond World War. The letters connected her to her grandfather andhis sixty-three-year long marriage in a way that she had not been ableto connect with him in life. By witnessing his youth through his love ofher grandmother, Lauren was able to see him more clearly. Findingthese letters set her off on a long journey of research, starting withcouples in the neighbourhood in New York where she then lived andcontinuing throughout the United States and Europe.