Alzheimer's & Dementia,

For my five picture story project I chose the subject of an old woman with arthritis who lives on her own. I looked at other photographers that focused on other diseases older people are prone to. I also looked at other articles that I thought depicted fragility.

The first one I looked at was about photographer Mark Edwards who captures his and his mums journey through her having the terrible illness of Alzheimers. This story is his way of coping and it helps to understand what she's going through. He also wants to raise awareness with these images and help other families who have an elderly relative with this horrible disease. 'The father-of three wants the images to help shed light on a disease that he said has been 'left in the shadows.' He said: 'Alzheimer's is a devastating disease as it takes away the very soul of someone. This issue is too often locked away and there just isn't the same amount of research and funding as there is for something like cancer.'

This article really spoke to me in raising awareness of how alone old people are, especially when they have these illnesses, this was really heartwarming as at least she had support, some people do not unfortunately.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1362475/Alzheimers-disease-Portrait-dementias-effect-photographers-mother.html
The images are beautiful and the tones really contrast well.

  


The other article I found was one about a Dementia ward where the journalist tells about his mother who also suffers from this illness. The photographer Maja Daniels and writer Andrea Gillies reflects on the journey
there and what lies beyond the locked door. It's an interesting piece where they document the patients and compare them to Andrea's own mother-in-law Nancy. He sees that she has a better life in her nursing home as this one is very different.

'I think that Nancy has a better life than the people pictured in this dementia ward. That is to say, the obvious aesthetic conditions are better than this world of grey paint, ugliness and hard surfaces. The tiled and shiny floor pictured here is about giving the staf.f an easier life, not the residents. It’s easy to connect the evident distress of some of these people with the prison-like austerity of their surroundings

The images are well shot in unique ways, sometimes not showing faces which shows more mystery aabout the ward. They show the hard living these old people have and the fact that these places are like prisons. The patients have Dementia so are confused about surroundings and ofren try to break out of the ward.