SEVERAL local gym-goers are featured in a new photo essay by photographer Leonie Reisberg, which is now on display at the Tea Gardens Library until the end of April.
Titled “Strength in Movement”, the work depicts locals in motion at the Tea Gardens CrossFit gym.
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“I have been going to the gym for a bit more than a year, and started noticing the beauty in older people exercising,” Leonie told News Of The Area.
“[There is] a change in perspective when taking photos of people doing things you would not normally see them do.
“Everyone there is non-judgemental, supportive, we laugh a lot, lots of encouragement, and it seems like a very unusual gym situation.
“You talk to a lot of people who are having hip replacements [and] they’ll say they sat down for a lot of their professional life, like me.
“I was a therapist who sat down for many hours during the workday.”
Leonie was an art psychotherapist for 40 years, half of that time in New York City.
She used creativity to help people deal with their issues.
“Clients discover their relationship with the picture they make, and reach realisations on their own.
“They can use their own creativity to gain insight into their own problems and solutions.”
Leonie’s past works have been exhibited in festivals and galleries around Australia and internationally, from the NSW Art Gallery to the Art Institute of Chicago.
Her psychotherapy skills led to the creation of the program ‘Kidslink’, which helps kids re-engage with the world around them through art, drama and games.
“Several of the local ‘Strength in Movement’ photo subjects have even bought their own images to hang in the hallway to impress the grandkids,” Leonie added.
By Thomas O’KEEFE
