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.

Margaret

Margaret showing Smokey's prize winning ribbons

One of my latest projects and one of my favourite ones so far is a five picture story piece. We got given two words fragile and touch, with these we would choose a subject we thought represented these words. For fragile I kept thinking about old people and how they're on their own towards the end years of their lives. Most of them have illnesses and aren't visited at all by relatives. I know this as both my grandparents were like this and my nan still is, although we visit her, she's on her own and has many illnesses but refuses help.

I wanted to show how fragile old people can be and that the public should care for them as much as they do children and pets etc. I was going to photograph my own nan but she wasn't comfortable with that so I got into contact with a few other old people I knew of. The one that came through was Margaret my friends nan, she is a lovely lady who lives on her own in a three bedroom house.

Margaret still plays the piano even though she has Arthritis
and has had to change the way she moves her fingers

As soon as I met Margaret she was so welcoming and offered me tea, biscuits and sweets. I explained to her what my project was for and that I just wanted her to relax, watch the tv & tell me about her life as I took photos. She was completely fine with this and introduced me to her cat Smokey who came trotting down the stairs, he was beautiful and she told me that he was a prize winning cat but now they're both too old to compete. She told be about her other cat Tinker that died quite old which shows she looks after her cats really well. I asked her whether she'd like to move into a bungalow or smaller house and she said unfortunately she can't afford to and she had this house with her late husband and kids, so too many good memories for her.

Margaret lives in her three bed house with just w her cat Smokey,
she had another cat Tinkerwho died recently. 

Aside from being on her own in a big house, Margaret also suffers from Arthritis quite badly and finds it hard to climb up and down her stairs. Even though she has this illness she still carries on with her hobbies like gardening, collecting trinkets and playing piano, she told me that she has had to change her way of playing as her fingers cramp up and swell. I asked her if she could play a tune and she was brilliant. Margaret told me of stories where she used to play piano for pantos in Weedon (a little village) and has been playing all her life.

I think it's incredible that although she lives on her own and has this illness she still lives her life and keeps up with her hobbies, most old people today just watch their tv and sleep but she makes sure she still has interests. I think Margaret is fragile physically but mentally i think she's strong.

An old photograph of herself and her late husband Jim

Leah, Electric Om Tattooist

For my female portraiture subject I wanted to capture an artist, someone who spends their time creating something for someone else. I thought a tattooist would be perfect and one that has done work on myself is Leah from The Electric Om in Falmouth. She is a lovely girl who creates amazing work, I wanted to show her personality aswell, she's into Buddhism and pirate music from the chats I've had with her. I think it's important that female tattooists keep at it as it's a very male dominated career like most creative subjects.

Black Dog Hairdressers

For my third subject on relationships I chose to photograph hairdressers and in particular one in Falmouth called The Black Dog. They are a very friendly and offer you great customer service, their shop is retro and stylish with pinball machines and movie posters. I think it's important when you have a hair cut to feel comfortable as it's an awkward thing normally. I wanted to capture how the hairdressers can either be very chatty and you have a good experience, but also how sometimes it's annoying and hard to talk to them as you can't hear them because of the hairdryer! I also wanted to show the special relationship you have with them as they're cutting your hair which is quite a responsibility.