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

 

-The Washington Post

“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.”

-Halley Bondy, MSNBC News

“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.” 

 

-BookPage, Starred Review

“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.”

 

-Foreword Reviews, Starred Review

"The black-and-white portraits are intimate and revealing, and the interviews... are never less than fascinating...its magic rests in the portraits, which are so wondrous that one is drawn irresistibly into the words." 

 

-Air Mail

"It is with these words (from the women in the book) that any woman who reaches the age of 50 and beyond can exhilarate in the fact that a better life is just beginning."

 

-The New York Journal of Books

“This is a collection of 40 beautiful portraits of 40 amazing women over 50. Gift it to all your friends, for no special occasion whatsoever. “

                                                                        

-Ms Magazine

"Warner’s work.. reveals a … delicate and personal side of her .. subjects. With her portrait work, she’s been able to tap into this core ethos—telling the little-known and often marginalized stories of folks she’s met through her travels… Her latest project, a book titled The Second Half: 40 Women Reveal Life After 50, speaks deeply to this emotional side of her work."

 

-W Magazine

“The faces of the women in this book, deeply etched by experience and sorrow and yet alight with life and hope, are an enduring tribute not only to Ellen’s genius as a photographer but also to the personal qualities that give her subjects the freedom to reveal who they really are.”

 

-Pat Barker, novelist

“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”

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-Professor Elaine Pagels, historian

“Warner’s book beautifully reflects the challenges and opportunities of growing older in an ageist culture. The depictions of older women’s complexity, diversity and resiliency offer a wonderful resource for all of us – including younger people – in our age-segregated society.”

 

-Joan Ditzion,MSW, and Judy Norsigian, co-founders of Our Bodies Ourselves

“The diverse and inspiring stories in Ellen Warner’s The Second Half are as powerfully written as they are stunningly photographed, and superbly curated. Each face, each life, each page fills you with hope and takes your breath away.”

 

-Nandana Sen, writer, actor, activist

“ Ellen Warner’s photographs are deeply narrative, and in this book we are presented with a remarkable enhancement to those images: the real narratives.”

 

-Tim Gunn, author, actor, Project Runway mentor