What's Age Got To Do With It?

From intergenerational friendships that overcome conventional power games to role models who defy every age-appropriate misnomer—welcome to the age of agelessness.

- Shahnaz Siganporia

There’s a lot about Mona Ahmed’s life that can be neatly documented into the life and times of the third gender living on the fringes of society in India. Quite literally, because Ahmed’s home lay at the edge of a cemetery. She passed away last year at the age of 81, leaving behind a rich legacy carefully documented by Dayanita Singh, her official photographer. For Singh, Mona wasn’t just a representative of the hijra community and there was no tokenism to her chronicling—instead, she was a complex, unique individual who also became the photographer’s closest friend. Singh recalls their relationship of equals that led to a spiritual companionship.

There’s a unique domestic intimacy to the relationship you share with your subjects. With Mona, this revealed itself into a long-standing friendship that took you beyond photographer and subject...