A selection of men and women who have already celebrated their 100th birthday. The photos were taken by Karsten Thormaehlen.

Have you ever seen an elderly person and wondered what they looked like a few years back? Well, a smart thinking photographer – Nicholas Nixon – wondered just that. Nixon took a picture of 4 sisters – the Browns – for 30 odd years. The images show just how someone ages over time.

1975

Ashanti Eliott-Smith is like any other girls of her age, she goes to school, plays with her friends or her puppy, she likes horses and is a fan of Girls Aloud and JLS… But unfortunately, she has a rare incurable condition (Hutchinson–Gilford progeria syndrome) that makes her age faster than other people, 8 times faster to be more precise. This condition is very rare and only 52 persons in the world suffer progeria, with just one other kid in Britain.