Miriam Goodman considered herself a writer who took pictures. In fact, she had a talent for merging the two in a way that asks viewers to see her photographs in a specific, more personal way.

A collection of her work, After a Certain Age, is on display at The Griffin Museum at The Cambridge Homes in Cambridge, MA, May 17 through June 29. The exhibit runs in conjunction with the second anniversary of Goodman’s death on May 11, 2008, at age 69.

In After a Certain Age, Goodman’s photographs tell the story of a woman getting older. Using objects the woman handles and the spaces she moves through, Goodman adds words that remove any ambiguity and make the photographs very concrete in meaning. A collection of make-up and hair accessories is made more poignant by the words, “It was very important we told her how good she looked,” while a calendar with scribbled notes is given more meaning by the phrase, “She had trouble remembering dates.”

“In this body of work, Miriam Goodman is confronting us with what it is like to be aging and female,” explained Paula Tognarelli, executive director of the Griffin Museum. “Her work is very poignant. She is able to bring a serious, as well as a lighthearted approach to the topic of aging. On one hand, she’s grappling with the frustrating and challenging aspects of aging, while on the other hand she is able to laugh at herself.”

A poet for many years, Goodman, formerly of Arlington, MA, decided at age 50 to become a photographer. She went on to teach classes that merged the visual and writing disciplines.

She studied in the Photography Atelier program of the Radcliffe and Lesley Seminars and at the New England School of Photography (NESOP). She was the photography editor of the Women’s Review of Books and founder/co-coordinator of the Word & Image Lecture series sponsored by Lesley Seminars and The Center for Photographic Exhibition of the New England School of Photography. Her photographs have appeared on book jackets, in literary magazines, CD packaging, and on the web.

An opening reception After a Certain Age is Tuesday, May 18, 7:30-8:30 PM, at The Cambridge Homes, 360 Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.