Age is a strange thing, some people never really age, other ones look old at 25… I see that every day, and I don’t even know where it exactly comes from, it may come from the way you see the world, from your life and your relationship with others, it may come more from inside than outside and I have met some 60-year-olds that were younger than some of my students! It certainly comes from your will to be different, your will to create and innovate. I believe creation is a big part of it, innovators, scientists or artists, who are able to express themselves in the field they enjoy the most, have that spark in their eyes that never makes them look old.
That’s why a lot of artists never age, probably because they try to apply Picasso’s famous quote to their life, and stay true to their inner child — ‘Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up’. Just try to do that if you have a 9 to 5 desk job!
Of course this is even truer when the artist dies young, he/she literally never gets old,…or you thought! Now, of course, we have the technology to make them look old, and Sachs Media Group, in collaboration with photo restoration and manipulation company Phojoe, has published a series of portraits of musicians who died young, trying to figure out how they would have aged. And the results are quite realistic: Cobain looks very mature and a little bloated I have to say, Karen Carpenter looks like a 5th grade school teacher, John Lennon like the CEO of some corporation (very sad), Jim Morrison a bit like Kris Kristofferson. Mama Cass’ Elliot had always looked old anyway, but Janis Joplin looks more homey than ever, and Presley resembles a bit my grandfather, whereas Marley and Hendrix don’t even look a year older, but it’s well known that blacks don’t age. They give a little bio with each portrait and some imaginary part if these people had lived longer. But honestly who can tell whether Marley would have collaborated with Kanye West or Cobain explored his interest for Americana, at this guess game, everything goes! Plus, I am not sure it’s a homage, people should never mess up with memory, age and rock icons like this!
