Tauranga portrait photographer Charmaine Marinkovich is using her camera's lens to help women embrace ageing and to step outside of their comfort zone.

Charmaine has created a photographic exhibition called ‘40 over 40' – a series of black and white photographs of women who have grown more than 40 years old. The exhibition is about seeing real women at different life stages and showcases their strength, wisdom and beauty.

'As we get older I think there's a lot of women who feel that they want to hide or they don't want to do anything,” says Charmaine.

'Their body is changing, grey hairs are turning up, there's more wrinkles and that can take a bit of a toll…it's a process isn't it? When you're changing constantly.”

With a lot of young women displayed in the media, Charmaine says it's nice to bring older women into the spotlight.

'It's just about expressing ourselves and how we wish to express ourselves in the world, being true to that and just keeping a practice of acceptance of ourselves, who we are and knowing it's a blessing to get older.”

Having photographed women for nine years, Charmaine says her exhibition is about pushing women to bring all of themselves to the table.

'Dress how you want to dress and if there's any activities you want to do, just do them,” says Charmaine, who took up Latin dancing when she turned 40. 'I've always wanted to dance…I love it and I feel good – that's just become a real big part of my life,” says Charmaine.

'Life doesn't have to slow down because we're aging, if anything it can keep going and going, so it's more about encouraging women to do that and to step outside their comfort zone a little bit more.”

Charmaine doesn't believe in photoshopping women – either whether that be removing wrinkles or slimming someone's body. 'Grow old gracefully and it's about accepting that and we cannot change it…I would rather a women have a real photograph of herself than an edited one where it's not actually her.”

The 40 women featured in Charmaine's exhibition chose to be photographed for a range of reasons, she says.

'Some people can be like: ‘I want to do something for myself, I don't know who I am anymore, or I don't know what I want to do'.” She adds: 'This can be the thing that they step into and they're like: ‘Oh wow I did that for myself, what next?'”

The exhibition will run from Saturday, November 5, to Thursday, November 10, at The Art Lounge NZ Gallery, 117 Willow St, Tauranga. For more details, visit: https://www.facebook.com/charmainemarinkovichportraits