Mirja Maria Thiel (1971) is a German photographer based in Bremen, northern Germany, whose approach to photography is rooted in her fascination for storytelling as a means of rising to challenge, living with change and showing compassion with humanity’s and her own vulnerability. Originally, she completed a Master of Arts in literature and linguistics. Later, while rediscovering her delight in photography by documenting her three young children, she decided to study ‘Visual Journalism and Documentary Photography’ in Hanover, Germany. As a visual author Mirja pursues a subjective and modern approach to the documentary tradition through in-depth-engagement with her subjects. So far, her long-term work has concentrated mainly on the elderly: the impact of Alzheimer’s disease on the emotional landscape of caregivers and the affected individual alike, as well as the exploration of eroticism and intimacy in old age couples in All This Love. More recently, she has focused on photographing the experience of trauma and mental health issues.

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All This Love by Mirja Maria Thiel

The aim of this series is to broaden the social discourse about old age. Today, we are so used to discussing complex sets of challenges concerning the security of the pension system, the dramatic rise of dementia diseases, and the nursing crisis. We even talk about leisure culture and educational opportunities for the so-called silver and golden ager - mostly through an economic lense though - whereas eroticism and sexuality in older and high age couples are utterly underrepresented or even tabooed in the public mind. But endless variations of love, desire and eroticism build a universal value that is lived, at its best, by humankind all over the world at all ages. All This Love highlights some beautiful love stories and intimate moments of older couples.