Somewhere, Still

A photographic exploration of memory loss, dementia and changing relationships

This project uses photography to explore my experience of my mum’s memory loss. 

I have chosen to use figurative images to create a feeling and a mood that reflects my own when considering my mum’s mental decline.  I have used some images with no particular point of focus or obvious subject matter; images where the focus is very narrow, where light and shade combine to create tension, where shapes hint at the vacant spaces in my mum’s memory.  Most of the images were shot in natural light, reinforcing the symbolic nature of memory loss – light and shade, harsh and soft.  Some of the images are composites, representing the merging of memories.  The majority of the images are monochromatic, but some are in colour to represent my mum prior to her diagnosis – a vibrant, fun, gregarious person, and although this side of her has dimmed, there are still remnants of that person in the memories of her youth and younger days.