Visualising old age. Photographs of older people on the website of the DaneAge Association for older people

This article studies how the Danish advocacy group for older people, Ældre Sagen (the DaneAge Association, or DAA), of which around 46 per cent of all Danes over the age of 65 are members, visually represents older people. The study gains theoretical inspiration from media and cultural-gerontological theories concerning the cultural influence of media representations of older people, and the connected perceptions of what it means to be and to grow old. The study is based on an analysis of a sample of 59 photographs that appeared on DAA’s website in the period 2016−2018. The results indicate a dominant visual representation of older people as happy, socially involved and extroverted, while representations of older people as weak, introverted and alone constitute a minority. In conclusion, the organisation visually promote a positive image of older people, at the same time as they represent them as excluded from other age groups and from culture and society in general.