Artist Elana Langer is on a mission. Inspired by her grandmother, she wants to make the tools of living well, like walkers and hearing aids, more glamorous.
So she teamed up with NYC-based photographer Hanna Agar to create a photo series called Tools of Life, featuring elegantly bedazzled hearing aids shot in real-world scenarios.
“My grandmother was a real lady,” Langer said on the project’s Tumblr.
Langer suggested to her grandmother that they bedazzle her walker but her grandmother didn’t like the idea.
“We need to have fun within these places that cause social discomfort,” Langer said.
“One tool of enhancement, like clothing or jewelry, doesn’t have to compromise another tool of enhancement like the ability to hear or walk with greater ease.”
Both kinds of devices, Langar says, are "enriching our experiences in the world.
Langer, along with Agar—who has done other conceptual and portraiture work—are planning more shoots in this series including a model with a punk walker.
"The moment Elana mentioned it to me, I could just imagine this world," Agar told BuzzFeed, "where all these people were walking around with blinged out walkers, just rocking it down the street. And having hearing aids be just as beautiful as earrings."
The allure of a fancy walker was clear when they were shooting part of the series at a unisex salon in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
“When we walked in with the walker, the women went crazy,” said Agar. “ One of them exclaimed, “I want one of these when I am old. I would take it to the club!”
Check out more photos from the project here.
A previous version of this article said the decorated devices were not for sale, but has been corrected.