Talking Eyes at 20
April 3, 2023 • Written by Julie Winokur / Photos by Ed Kashi
Talking Eyes recently turned 20, and in anticipation of our 21st birthday I am launching a blog to share reflections, lessons, insights and observations. To mark the occasion, we are releasing our new website: a fresh face for a seasoned team that continues to push boundaries. The wrapper is new, but our soul remains the same.
I launched Talking Eyes with my incredibly talented life partner, Ed Kashi, during the home stretch of our project, Aging in America. After seven years of field work and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants, we had drawn a new roadmap to guide our way in long-form storytelling. We used this model to start our own nonprofit, not because I had experience in that realm, but because there was no way to fund our projects without grant support and we were not going to squeeze ourselves back into the box of freelance journalism. No longer would we conceive one story at a time or rely on magazine assignments to subsidize and validate our efforts. Opportunities were exploding through digital technology and traditional media had been irreparably disrupted. Rather than mourning the loss of a structure we understood, we embraced the new frontier and transitioned from being a writer (me) and photojournalist (Ed), to being multimedia journalists and filmmakers with an eye toward building partnerships and public programming.
We found our natural habitat well outside the corridors of the media and discovered kindred spirits among organizers, activists, service professionals and educators. We recognized the rewards of following our media babies into the world, where they could open minds and inspire change when placed in the capable hands of people who were already doing the messy work of social and political transformation.
When we started Aging in America, we didn’t realize we would grow so much older with the project, while it remained timely and relevant. The project started with demographics—by 2050, America would have more people over 65 than under 18 for the first time in history. Statistics are just narratives waiting to be illustrated, and we devised a plan to document the “topography of aging” through a broad range of stories. That resulted in a film, book and exhibition as well as extensive public lectures. The film continues to be our best-selling despite its fuzzy analogue footage and 4:3 aspect ratio. Somehow it overcomes being dated because its content is so relatable.
I had subjected so many other people to this process during my career, but only then did I learn to appreciate the pain and the rewards it entailed.
The project led to our film, The Sandwich Generation, which chronicles our experience caring for my father as he descended into dementia. When we were approached about making a film on this topic by MediaStorm, I was so overextended caring for my father that the only way we could tackle the subject was by turning the camera on ourselves. And I am grateful that we did. That experience required raw vulnerability—something I am allergic to. It felt like turning my insides out and putting them on display. In the end, it enriched us as storytellers and human beings. Of course, I had subjected so many other people to this process during my career, but only then did I learn to appreciate the pain and the rewards it entailed. Ed and I shared an excerpt from The Sandwich Generation a couple of weeks ago at the National Press Photographers Association and its timelessness continues to resonate. While I cringed seeing myself on screen, the stillness blanketing the room told me that this story reaches people at their depths and helps connect our humanity.
With the cacophony of social media and infinite demands on our attention, we continue our quest to tell stories that 'pierce the busy.'
As I take stock of two decades building Talking Eyes, the passage of time screams for attention. What have these years delivered to us and what have they taken away? My father, Herbie, would have been 100 last weekend. He died 15 years ago, but he is flawlessly preserved in The Sandwich Generation, perpetually replaying a series of limbo moments that won’t let him die. These cameos overshadow the other stages of his life, but they are a gift.
Over the last six months, Ed and I took to the road, disrupting our status quo and renewing our relationship to time. In a world that keeps accelerating, we needed to slow down and revisit our roots as a writer and photographer. When we launched Talking Eyes, one of our first board members, Caroline Herter, said “your work pierces the busy,” which I took as the highest compliment possible. With the cacophony of social media and infinite demands on our attention, we continue our quest to tell stories that “pierce the busy.” As Talking Eyes comes of age, this is our higher calling.