My First Gallery Exhibition in Strasbourg, France

Full English translation of press article down below 🙂

Images to Connect Generations

Until the end of November, Helena Woods is presenting 30 pictures of children at the Ehpad Emmaus de Koenigshoffen (a senior center home close to Strasbourg, France). Next year, a second exhibit will be put up with the theme of portraits of the elderly that the American photographer will take in the senior center homes. 

Children, babies in the arms of their father or mother, sister accomplices, chubby hands grabbing others dug in furrows…From October 22nd until November 22nd, the welcome hall of the Ehpad Emmaus Diaconesses de Koenigshoffen is brightened by the soft images of the young American photographer Helena Woods. 

Titled “Family and Childhood,” the selection of about 30 photos shine with a pretty natural light and radiating tenderness aims to elicit feelings of long-lasting relationships between children and the elderly. 

A Storyteller through Images 

“The photos that I take reflect what I believe is the most important thing in life: the connections we share with the people we love” says Helena Woods, a storyteller who is fascinated by the natural way that children see the world. 

The connection between the senior home and the young lady of 25 years, originally from San Diego California, was made through her husband, whom she followed to Strasbourg and whom found himself becoming the English instructor of two colleagues of a group of 350 employees who welcome 600 seniors in five different senior center homes in the neighborhood (Emmaus Koenigshoffen and city center, Siloe in Ostwald, Les Quatre-Vents in Vendenheim, and Bethlehem in Cronenbourg, taken back recently). 

“This exhibit will be held in all our senior center homes, informs Stephane Buzon, the director of the network of five senior center homes. In doing so it will let the residents get to know the work of Helena Woods, with an even greater goal as the next step: next year, she will take portraits of the residents, which will be the theme of our new photography exhibit. 

“The Nursing home is not a place of death” 

The evening of the exhibit opening, many seniors showed their enthusiasm for the photographs, much to the delight of the director. “Even if we welcome more and more highly-dependent people, a nursing home is not a place of death, but rather, a place of life. Even at 95 years old, we still have desires and creativity: it’s up to us to give our elders the possibility to express themselves.” 

The Exhibit “Family and Childhood” will be on display until November 22nd at the nursing home Ehpad Emmaus Diaconesses, found at 33 Rue de la Tour in Strasbourg Koenigshoffen.