“Who’s the one that I adore/ Though he beats me to the floor?/ Old grand dad/ My old grand dad”, sang Fats Waller. This week, as we celebrate the International Day of Older Persons, we dig into the Getty archives to find beautiful, inspiring images of the Elders around us.
Despite inclement weather pensioners raise a happy smile as they perform the famously British dance of comedians Morcambe and Wise next to a statue of Eric Morcambe, at Morcambe Bayon June 22, 2006, in Morcambe, England. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Singers Beyonce Knowles (L) and Tina Turner perform onstage during the 50th annual Grammy awards held at the Staples Center on February 10, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images) Senior citizens enjoy a tea dance at the Glasgow Club in the Gorbals on January 28, 2010 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images) Vicki Wilson prepares to take part in a intermediate seniors ballet class at Queensland Ballet dance studios on May 6, 2018 in Brisbane, Australia. Queensland Ballet has been running ballet classes for seniors every Sunday morning since 2015, with participants ranging from 60 to 85 years of age. President Jacob Zuma sings and dances with his new bride, Thobeka Madiba during their wedding ceremony at Zumas rural homestead in Nkandla, Kwazulu-Natal on Monday, 4 January 2010. (Photo by Gallo Images/Foto24/Herman Verwey) Singer Diana Ross performs onstage at the 2006 TV Land Awards at the Barker Hangar on March 19, 2006 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images) circa 1965: A group of elderly women exercising in a 'keep fit' class, New York. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images) Recovering elderly heart surgery patients exercise in a community-sponsored program August 24, 2005 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images) Joseph Pilates (1883 - 1967), inventor and promoter of the Pilates fitness method, exercising at his 8th Avenue studio in New York City, circa 1960. (Photo by Susan Schiff Faludi/Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) 20th September 1941: The total weight of the men and the weights borne by the physical training instructor to the local Home Guard is 39 stone. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images) Elderly South Korean women practice TaeKwonDo on February 9, 2006 in Incheon, South Korea. Taekwondo is a modern martial art from Korea that is characterised by its fast, high and spinning kicks. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images) A senior citizen and children perform martial arts during an activity to display Chinese health Qigong on November 3, 2006 in Nanjing of Jiangsu Province, China. Qigong is a combination of two ideas: "Qi" meaning air, breath of life or vital energy of the body, and "gong" meaning the skill of working with, or cultivating self-discipline and self-healing. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images) Gerson Sobel, 93, of Rockville Center, New York swims his morning laps at the Freeport Recreation Center on February 6, 2004 in Freeport, New York. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) Chinese man Guo Cairu, 105-years-old, sprints during an activity in which he challenges the 100 meter run record for centenarians on May 10, 2005 in Nanjing of Jiangsu Province, China. Guo finished in a time of 35.24 seconds though failed to break the record of 30.86 seconds set by 100-year-old South African Philip Rabinowitz last year. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images) Elderly people play table tennis August 25, 2005 in Berlin, Germany. Germany's economy and pension system is being burdened by an expanding elderly population, and German politicians are offering various solutions ahead of the elections on September 18, 2005. (Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images) South African grandmothers pose with footballs in the Nkowankowa township on November 24, 2009 in Tzaneen, South Africa. (Photo by Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images/Getty Images) An elderly Chinese man flexes his muscles as he performs a martial arts routine on the street for onlookers on June 2, 2014 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images) An elderly Norwich City fan celebrates as her team win the match and secure winning League One as champions during the Coca Cola League One match between Norwich City and Gillingham at Carrow Road on April 24, 2010 in Norwich, England. (Photo by Jed Leicester/Getty Images) In this handout image provided by Capture the Light Photography, Colonel Tom Moore and his daughter Hannah celebrate his 100th birthday, with an RAF flypast provided by a Spitfire and a Hurricane over his home on April 30, 2020 in Marston Moretaine, England. (Emma Sohl - Capture the Light Photography via Getty Images) A Masters patron watches the play during the third round of the Masters on April 10, 2004 at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) An older woman smokes a marijuana joint at Hempfest on August 21, 2004 in Seattle, Washington. More than 150,000 people were expected to attend Hempfest at Seattle's Myrtle Edwards Park on Seattle's waterfront on August 21-22, 2004. (Photo by Ron Wurzer/Getty Images) The Elders was launched in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 18 July 2007, the day of President Nelson Mandela's 89th birthday. The Elders will comprise of a group of international icons for peace and justice, that will seek to impact positively on urgent world problems. Graca Machel (left), Nelson Mandela (Middle(, Richard Branson (far back), Jimmy Carter (Right). (Photo by Gallo Images/Oryx Media Archive/Benny Gool) Monte Bernstein, of New York, gets some sun in Washington Square Park the morning after a Northeast storm dropped more than two-feet of snow February 13, 2006 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Sarah Hussein Obama, 86, the grandmother of US Presidential candidate Barack Obama, holds a photo of her grandson as she awaits the results of Super Tuesday's primary February 5, 2008 in Kogelo, Kenya. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images) An elderly model walks the runway past a younger one in the Duyos fashion show during the Cibeles Madrid Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2011 at the Ifema on September 20, 2010 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images) An elderly Korean woman receives makeup from volunteers before a free funeral photo - or longevity photo nowadays - session on the last day of ten-week program for 'well dying' on May 19, 2016 in Seoul, South Korea. This particular program, organized by a South Korean NGO, Good Nanum, is a part of a ten-week welfare program called 'My Heart's Flower has Bloomed' by the Jongro district office for the elderly to prepare for a 'well dying.' Park Jin-ok, executive director at Good Nanum, said, 'It is a process of accepting death as a part of life, not as a scary thing.' The participants should live alone in the district, receive social welfare, and have depression. In the program, ten participants engaged in such activities as making dead masks, dancing, and getting funeral pictures taken to reflect upon their life. Another aim to take the funeral photos is to record the most beautiful day of their life even after their death when the deceased are paid respect by the remaining family members. (Photo by Jean Chung/Getty Images) King plays a concert for his 80th birthday on July 12, 2005 in Rome, Italy (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images) 25th July 1980: Slumped in a deckchair, an elderly man, his cap pulled down to rest on his glasses, reads a pamphlet. (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images) Pig Felix of physiotherapist Daan Vermeulen and an elderly woman stand in a lift at a senior care facility on April 12, 2011 in Essen, Germany. Vermeulen uses Felix, whom he has specially trained, to provide emotional therapy for the elderly and for handicapped children. (Photo by Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images) Olivia Grant (R) hugs her grandmother, Mary Grace Sileo through a plastic drop cloth hung up on a homemade clothesline during Memorial Day Weekend on May 24, 2020 in Wantagh, New York. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) 26th July 1936: 76 year old Evan Ellis of Anglesey kissing his bride, 70 year old Mary Ann Kinsley after their wedding at Ton Pentre, Rhondda. (Photo by Richards/Fox Photos/Getty Images) Paul Spearing, outreach coordinator for Senior HIV Intervention Project, demonstrates with his fingers how to correctly use a condom for Sylvia Itzkowitz and Betty Itzkowitz May 21, 2004 during a health fair in Plantation, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) 12th June 1958: Archie Miller drinking a cup of tea in the solid oak coffin he bought to ensure he would leave this world in real style. (Photo by Chris Ware/Keystone Features/Getty Images)
A warm thank you to Kim McCarthy from Gallo Images for her generous help in the production of this image selection. DM/ ML
Missed the last edition of Our World in Pictures? Click below to watch the selection of images “Life Well Lived: Remembering the Notorious RBG”
Despite inclement weather pensioners raise a happy smile as they perform the famously British dance of comedians Morcambe and Wise next to a statue of Eric Morcambe, at Morcambe Bayon June 22, 2006, in Morcambe, England. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images) /file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-79696287.jpg "Singers Beyonce Knowles (L) and Tina Turner perform onstage during the 50th annual Grammy awards held at the Staples Center on February 10, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/3GettyImages-96492913.jpg "Senior citizens enjoy a tea dance at the Glasgow Club in the Gorbals on January 28, 2010 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/3GettyImages-957141284.jpg "Vicki Wilson prepares to take part in a intermediate seniors ballet class at Queensland Ballet dance studios on May 6, 2018 in Brisbane, Australia. Queensland Ballet has been running ballet classes for seniors every Sunday morning since 2015, with participants ranging from 60 to 85 years of age.")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/2getty0000103748.jpg "President Jacob Zuma sings and dances with his new bride, Thobeka Madiba during their wedding ceremony at Zumas rural homestead in Nkandla, Kwazulu-Natal on Monday, 4 January 2010. (Photo by Gallo Images/Foto24/Herman Verwey)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-57134460.jpg "Singer Diana Ross performs onstage at the 2006 TV Land Awards at the Barker Hangar on March 19, 2006 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/4GettyImages-3302166.jpg "circa 1965: A group of elderly women exercising in a 'keep fit' class, New York. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/5GettyImages-53920019.jpg "Recovering elderly heart surgery patients exercise in a community-sponsored program August 24, 2005 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/6GettyImages-3301771.jpg "Joseph Pilates (1883 - 1967), inventor and promoter of the Pilates fitness method, exercising at his 8th Avenue studio in New York City, circa 1960. (Photo by Susan Schiff Faludi/Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/7GettyImages-3268505.jpg "20th September 1941: The total weight of the men and the weights borne by the physical training instructor to the local Home Guard is 39 stone. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/8GettyImages-56793178.jpg "Elderly South Korean women practice TaeKwonDo on February 9, 2006 in Incheon, South Korea. Taekwondo is a modern martial art from Korea that is characterised by its fast, high and spinning kicks. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/9GettyImages-72373512.jpg "A senior citizen and children perform martial arts during an activity to display Chinese health Qigong on November 3, 2006 in Nanjing of Jiangsu Province, China. Qigong is a combination of two ideas: \"Qi\" meaning air, breath of life or vital energy of the body, and \"gong\" meaning the skill of working with, or cultivating self-discipline and self-healing. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/10GettyImages-51192120.jpg "Gerson Sobel, 93, of Rockville Center, New York swims his morning laps at the Freeport Recreation Center on February 6, 2004 in Freeport, New York. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/11GettyImages-52782794.jpg "Chinese man Guo Cairu, 105-years-old, sprints during an activity in which he challenges the 100 meter run record for centenarians on May 10, 2005 in Nanjing of Jiangsu Province, China. Guo finished in a time of 35.24 seconds though failed to break the record of 30.86 seconds set by 100-year-old South African Philip Rabinowitz last year. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/12GettyImages-53927779.jpg "Elderly people play table tennis August 25, 2005 in Berlin, Germany. Germany's economy and pension system is being burdened by an expanding elderly population, and German politicians are offering various solutions ahead of the elections on September 18, 2005. (Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/13GettyImages-93426462.jpg "South African grandmothers pose with footballs in the Nkowankowa township on November 24, 2009 in Tzaneen, South Africa. (Photo by Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/14GettyImages-495249737.jpg "An elderly Chinese man flexes his muscles as he performs a martial arts routine on the street for onlookers on June 2, 2014 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/15GettyImages-98666250.jpg "An elderly Norwich City fan celebrates as her team win the match and secure winning League One as champions during the Coca Cola League One match between Norwich City and Gillingham at Carrow Road on April 24, 2010 in Norwich, England. (Photo by Jed Leicester/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/16GettyImages-1211367295.jpg "In this handout image provided by Capture the Light Photography, Colonel Tom Moore and his daughter Hannah celebrate his 100th birthday, with an RAF flypast provided by a Spitfire and a Hurricane over his home on April 30, 2020 in Marston Moretaine, England. (Emma Sohl - Capture the Light Photography via Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/17GettyImages-3338053.jpg "A Masters patron watches the play during the third round of the Masters on April 10, 2004 at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/18GettyImages-51202552.jpg "An older woman smokes a marijuana joint at Hempfest on August 21, 2004 in Seattle, Washington. More than 150,000 people were expected to attend Hempfest at Seattle's Myrtle Edwards Park on Seattle's waterfront on August 21-22, 2004. (Photo by Ron Wurzer/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/19gettyED_0005603.jpg "The Elders was launched in Johannesburg, South Africa, on 18 July 2007, the day of President Nelson Mandela's 89th birthday. The Elders will comprise of a group of international icons for peace and justice, that will seek to impact positively on urgent world problems. Graca Machel (left), Nelson Mandela (Middle(, Richard Branson (far back), Jimmy Carter (Right). (Photo by Gallo Images/Oryx Media Archive/Benny Gool)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/20GettyImages-56837664.jpg "Monte Bernstein, of New York, gets some sun in Washington Square Park the morning after a Northeast storm dropped more than two-feet of snow February 13, 2006 in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/21GettyImages-79527922.jpg "Sarah Hussein Obama, 86, the grandmother of US Presidential candidate Barack Obama, holds a photo of her grandson as she awaits the results of Super Tuesday's primary February 5, 2008 in Kogelo, Kenya. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/22GettyImages-104293809.jpg "An elderly model walks the runway past a younger one in the Duyos fashion show during the Cibeles Madrid Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2011 at the Ifema on September 20, 2010 in Madrid, Spain. (Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/23GettyImages-532505182.jpg "An elderly Korean woman receives makeup from volunteers before a free funeral photo - or longevity photo nowadays - session on the last day of ten-week program for 'well dying' on May 19, 2016 in Seoul, South Korea. This particular program, organized by a South Korean NGO, Good Nanum, is a part of a ten-week welfare program called 'My Heart's Flower has Bloomed' by the Jongro district office for the elderly to prepare for a 'well dying.' Park Jin-ok, executive director at Good Nanum, said, 'It is a process of accepting death as a part of life, not as a scary thing.' The participants should live alone in the district, receive social welfare, and have depression. In the program, ten participants engaged in such activities as making dead masks, dancing, and getting funeral pictures taken to reflect upon their life. Another aim to take the funeral photos is to record the most beautiful day of their life even after their death when the deceased are paid respect by the remaining family members. (Photo by Jean Chung/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/GettyImages-53239115.jpg "King plays a concert for his 80th birthday on July 12, 2005 in Rome, Italy (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/24GettyImages-3166562.jpg "25th July 1980: Slumped in a deckchair, an elderly man, his cap pulled down to rest on his glasses, reads a pamphlet. (Photo by Evening Standard/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/25GettyImages-112294209.jpg "Pig Felix of physiotherapist Daan Vermeulen and an elderly woman stand in a lift at a senior care facility on April 12, 2011 in Essen, Germany. Vermeulen uses Felix, whom he has specially trained, to provide emotional therapy for the elderly and for handicapped children. (Photo by Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/26GettyImages-1226823033.jpg "Olivia Grant (R) hugs her grandmother, Mary Grace Sileo through a plastic drop cloth hung up on a homemade clothesline during Memorial Day Weekend on May 24, 2020 in Wantagh, New York. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/27GettyImages-3163232.jpg "26th July 1936: 76 year old Evan Ellis of Anglesey kissing his bride, 70 year old Mary Ann Kinsley after their wedding at Ton Pentre, Rhondda. (Photo by Richards/Fox Photos/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/28GettyImages-50883740.jpg "Paul Spearing, outreach coordinator for Senior HIV Intervention Project, demonstrates with his fingers how to correctly use a condom for Sylvia Itzkowitz and Betty Itzkowitz May 21, 2004 during a health fair in Plantation, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)")
/file/dailymaverick/wp-content/uploads/29GettyImages-2661218.jpg "12th June 1958: Archie Miller drinking a cup of tea in the solid oak coffin he bought to ensure he would leave this world in real style. (Photo by Chris Ware/Keystone Features/Getty Images)")
