Dementia

Photographs for personal use are most commonly taken in order to preserve a moment in time deemed worthy by the photographer. This creates an image of great sentimental value known only to those directly involved in its creation. However, our own internal memory of past events is set to become cloudy and incomplete due to either the natural passing of time or a myriad of afflictions that arise through the deterioration of the brain as we age. In such cases, the original memory becomes unreliable, causing the photograph to become the pure, primary record of the past. This is why those suffering from Alzheimer’s syndrome and Dementia use photographs from family albums as a tool to exercise their brain in order to increase memory retention. This series serves to highlight this dependence on photography. By removing the faces from the subjects, the viewer is presented with an image of a human figure that lacks any visual recognition or sentimental attachment that normally would be present in the unaltered version, thus simulating what it would be like to unrecognize loved ones and become detached from what should be cherished life events and memories.