Grandma Turns Superhero

A few years ago, the French photographer Sacha Goldberger faced a distressing problem. His 91-year-old Hungarian-born grandmother, Frederika, felt lonely and depressed.

His innovative solution was to turn “Mamika” into a larger-than-life superhero and photograph her. According to a post in My Modern Metropolis, “Grandma reluctantly agreed, but once they got rolling, she couldn’t stop smiling.”

The story went viral, even leading to talk of a movie deal. It’s easy to see why. Goldberger’s pictures convey the warmth and sense of wonder that made many of us love the superhero genre in the first place.

Additionally, the images are a reminder that for such a seemingly superficial thing, unique personal aesthetics can have a lot of power. It does everyone good to be a character, if just for a little while.

Of course, there’s also this:

Frederika was born in Budapest 20 years before World War II. During the war, at the peril of her own life, she courageously saved the lives of ten people. When asked how, Goldberger told us “she hid the Jewish people she knew, moving them around to different places every day.” As a survivor of Nazism and Communism, she then immigrated away from Hungary to France, forced by the Communist regime to leave her homeland illegally or face death.

Costume or no, heroes are in the most unexpected places. More photos, below the cut.

Posted by David Forbes on January 27th, 2011
Filed under Comics, Crime, Geekdom, Grrrl, Photography, Uniform, War

9 Responses to “Grandma Turns Superhero”

  1. Jenni Says:
    January 27th, 2011 at 4:42 pm

    Vote Mamika! YES!

  2. Shatteredshards Says:
    January 27th, 2011 at 7:38 pm

    These photos are amazing, there’s just so much personality and heart.

  3. Pigskin Pete Says:
    January 28th, 2011 at 7:49 am

    Wowsers. I hope that a) if I live to be 91, I have a wonderful sense of humor like Mamika and b) my grandkids treat me with love and respect like Mamika.

  4. Vivacious G Says:
    January 28th, 2011 at 7:49 am

    Great post! Such awesome photos and beautiful story! Thanks, David!

  5. Magpie Says:
    January 28th, 2011 at 10:55 am

    Marvelous! I wish I’d thought to do something similar with my own Grandmother. :)

  6. buddyblanc Says:
    January 28th, 2011 at 4:27 pm

    My eyes just welled up! Beautiful.

  7. Annah Says:
    January 28th, 2011 at 5:09 pm

    Amazingballs. I want to adopt her.

  8. Dave Says:
    February 4th, 2011 at 5:20 am

    good try Mamika, but we can all see that the dog is holding up the car in the last shot!

    ;-)

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    September 16th, 2011 at 9:18 am

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