Dalia Zelikha’s new exhibition, Silvered, documents lesbian couples in later life and challenges a culture that often pushes older women out of sight, offering what she calls a portrait of aging through tenderness, beauty and presenceHagai Ayed|Israeli photographer Dalia Zelikha set out to explore a question rarely asked in public: What does intimacy between women look like in later life?Her new exhibition, Silvered, currently on display in the lobby of the Tel Aviv Cinematheque plaza, documents older lesbian couples in portraits that place aging, love, tenderness and erotic presence at the center of the frame.6 View gallery Aviva and Yehudit (Photo: Dalia Zalika)“I chose to look at the beauty of facial wrinkles, to see the depth in the gaze, the softness of touch,” Zelikha says. “My photography series shows an authentic, present, loving and vibrant existence, through which I examine questions of gender, age and love.”“Through the photographs, I ask: Who are we when we are no longer young? I ask what tenderness, intimacy and eroticism between women look like at an age when we are expected to disappear from the public eye. This is work about visibility and making a voice heard, about the possibility of living in old age not through disappearance, but through revelation. These photographs do justice to women my age, normalize them and their beauty.”Asked whether the exhibition challenges the popular ideal of beauty and offers an alternative to the mainstream model, Zelikha answers without hesitation.“Absolutely, because our public space is full of Bar Refaelis of every kind, full of advertisements for Botox clinics showing women with gray hair but with the face of a 16-year-old child. It shows us a terrible picture of the beauty model. When everything around us is plastic and artificial, it engineers consciousness.“On the other hand, I am saying something else. I am presenting the mature female body differently, saying through photography that human nature is simply so beautiful. Beauty is cultural, local and temporary. Yes, I want to see my exhibition influence the public space, influence public consciousness. Even when I began working on these photographs, I understood their power, but only at the opening of the exhibition did I understand their impact and how moving they are.”How did she understand that impact?