Sixty-four people over the age of 90 are showcased in a photo exhibit now on display in the art gallery at Oak Hammock at the University of Florida.  

The work, “Senior Seniors,” spotlights the portraiture of Michael Levy, a retired University of Florida professor of cognitive psychology, returning to one of his first loves as a photographer.  

This is his fourth triennial exhibit of portraits of Oak Hammock nonagenarians – with nine couples and 55 individuals participating as subjects. 

“Some are widowed, and some have remarried, but to do a couple shot, both people had to be age-qualified,” he said. This means turning 90 before New Year’s Eve 2025, he said. 

Levy took all the portraits in his subjects’ homes because he said they would be more comfortable posing there. He prepared the photos by cropping and photoshopping a black background “to be more pleasing artistically.”  He matted and framed the portraits himself.  

Each show has been a three-year labor of love, something that happened by  

chance when he picked up a camera again while accompanying his wife, artist Jane Polkowski, to a sitting for a portrait she was painting. 

Like Levy, Polkowski developed her second career as an artist after she retired. It is a second marriage for both after their first spouses died. 

“I was mostly her sherpa, dragging this stuff that she needed for her work,” Levy said. “At one point, she finished taking pictures on a roll of film of a dog and was taking notes about the dog’s eye and nose color.  

“There were a couple of shots left. It occurred to me that I should become her photographer as well as her sherpa,” Levy said.  

Levy said Polkowski didn’t know about his early ventures with photography because “it never occurred to me to tell her.” 

As a child, he got a gift of a Brownie camera, and then, as a teen, he moved up and started taking pictures of people for graduation ceremonies, sweet 16 parties, weddings, and bar mitzvahs.  

He said he got so good he was able to buy himself a sports car with his earnings. But when he went to university, he “had no time to do photography. So, I just put all that stuff away for roughly half a century because I had a career and a family.”  

Levy’s return to photography came about mainly through his work with his wife. He also took pictures of people the couple had become friendly with at Oak Hammock when Polkowski painted portraits of them.  

“We looked back at the photographs that were the basis of her oil paintings and thought maybe I could show them,” he said.  

Oak Hammock’s Art League thought Levy’s initial portraits could be displayed in a show. But at the time, he had only done a few, and he didn’t think it was enough.  

“One thing they had in common was they were in their 90s,” Levy said. He saw a theme developing, so he got a list of Oak Hammock residents in their 90s and asked who would be willing to sit for a portrait.  

Surprisingly, not every nonagenarian wanted to participate in the show, Levy said. Some didn’t want to go public with their age. Others flat-out turned him down. Nonetheless, the idea took hold, a show was born, and the tradition has lived on.  

The exhibit is eye-catching, not just because of the high quality and harmony of the images but also because it reminds the observer how beautiful aging can be.  

Living into your 90s used to be a rarity. It’s still not easy to get there, but now there are more nonagenarians.  

In 1960, there were 24,275 people over 85 alive in Florida, according to U.S. Census data. In 2010, the number was 434,125, with projections for 2030 reaching 830,949. There are no numbers available for 2020. 

Levy’s show, up until April 5, gives aging locals something to strive toward as they age. 

The same goes for Levy.  

Now 87, Levy hopes to be a part of his next show in three years when he will have reached the age of 90. 

Editor’s note: This is the latest story in Mainstreet’s award-winning Aging Matters series. It was independently reported by Ronnie Lovler and underwritten by Elder Options.