Reading Ellen Warner’s ‘The Second Half’ is like having intimate conversations with 40 women from around the world

Ellen Warner’s powerful and moving portraits and interviews show us what we need to know: how extremely diverse women envision the second half of women’s lives, and the wide-ranging perspectives they offer to share with us, the fortunate readers

A fascinating, fly-in-amber distillation of forty women over fifty, the book pushes these women to the foreground, shaking up expectations along the way…The age of each sitter becomes an asset and a feature as the camera captures a stark play of light and shadow across bodies and faces at ease in their personal spaces. The results elevate Warner’s portraiture from mimetic to revelatory.

A trove of fascinating, brief narratives….As these women and others divulge their most difficult and joyous moments, the result is a book bristling with energy and wisdom.

Women in the second half of their lives—from the age of 50 into their 100s—often feel invisible. But photographer Ellen Warner is on a mission to prove that their stories deserve a spotlight.