Our Ancestors

This is the story of a small French town in Picardy and its residents, who, like the global population, are aging. Ham has 4,016 residents, 1,000 of whom are over 65—a quarter of the population.

“Globally, the population aged 65 and older is growing faster than that of other age groups. In 2018, for the first time in history, the number of people aged 65 and older worldwide exceeded the number of children under five. The number of people aged 80 or older is projected to triple, rising from 143 million in 2019 to 426 million in 2050.”

United Nations

So how are our seniors living today, in an increasingly connected and virtual world that, by breaking down direct connections, can lead to their social exclusion? (According to the Statista website, 59% of them never go online because they don’t know how to use the Internet.)

For the past few months, I’ve been documenting the lives of seniors in Ham, in the Somme department. This small rural town, with the help of a European fund, organizes “senior passes” several weeks a year—a program of workshops, activities, and introductory sessions as part of a community initiative for Ham’s senior citizens.

Let me introduce you to Dédé, Chantal, Danièle—with just one “l” because her parents wanted a boy—Jeannine, and Alain. These retirees share their stories with us—stories marked in particular by the industrial golden age that gradually faded away in Ham, life as a couple or alone, their reflections on loneliness, the transition from independent living to a nursing home, and also on the end of life.

Through this documentary project, which is still in progress, I invite you to delve into the intimate details of their stories, their questions, and their worldviews.