The Musics- Caring for Alzheimer's Patient

[gregkendallball]

I have posted 4 photos from a recent newspaper story about this couple and how they are dealing with Alzheimer's. They ran in the paper as a mix of color and b/w, but not processed this way. I tried to make them more documentary in feel.

Jane visits her husband Charles every day to feed him, read the newspaper, or look through old photo albums. She's there seven days a week, even though he often does not recognize her.








They held hands the entire time I was there.

[mmuhlenkamp]

That last one made me tear up a little, what a great woman and wife.

[gregkendallball]

I know! She is like the antithesis of Brittney Spears!

They have been married for over 50 years. Charles was diagnosed over a decade ago, and she has been faithfully (that's the word I come back to over and over again) caring for him ever since. I think heroism can happen in big, loud bursts, but it also happens in slow, plodding, everyday ways...

[dminton]

Good job

[toverman]

Nice work, tough subject for sure.

Both my grandmothers faded into dementia, one diagnosed with Alzheimer's. This was after their spouses had already passed, but they had children to visit them regularly. It was struggle for my mom, an only child, to give her mother the same attention a child would need after my grandmother had been so fiercely independent for so many years. Modern medicine can keep bodies alive for longer, but the mind doesn't always cooperate. There will be more and more opportunities to tell this story, sadly.

[Comanche]

Excellent excellent job, Greg. Your use of B&W was a very good call.

My mother died in August. She was in a nursing home and suffered from Alzheimer's. Towards the end, she had no idea who I was - just that I was somebody important in her life.

But - this section is to be about the photography, not personal "stuff." In that vein, I have a question for you.

I very much wanted to do a photo essay about Alzheimer's. I could not stay objective and shoot just my mother (though I have a huge collection of photos of her), but was stymied in my efforts to shoot other residents by the HIPA laws. The nursing home granted me permission to shoot for media use, as long as they had last editorial rights, but it was also stipulated that I needed permission from each resident. Since most of them are not mentally competent, someone has total power of attorney for them. Tracking down the PoA holder for each person was too daunting for me (many lived out of state and out of country), so I gave up on the project. Did you just ask permission from the woman and the home?

Again - excellent work.

[gregkendallball]

Doug-
I am not sure of all the releases that were secured by the editors before I went to shoot this assignment. I know the wife was happy to have me there- she and her husband had been followed for several years by a reporter in their previous hometown. The care facility gave me permission to be there, but I had to work to exclude any of the other patients from my frames...

[Comanche]

Originally Posted by gregkendallball

Doug-
I am not sure of all the releases that were secured by the editors before I went to shoot this assignment. I know the wife was happy to have me there- she and her husband had been followed for several years by a reporter in their previous hometown. The care facility gave me permission to be there, but I had to work to exclude any of the other patients from my frames...

Thanx, Greg. Just having to ask the one person certainly made things easier - and interesting that the home required you to keep other residents out of your shots.

Again - my compliments.