These images are part of an ongoing project about the relationship between myself and my father who suffers from dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
My father used to take a lot of photos when I grew up and I was often his subject. After developing his photographs, he used to sort them into albums that I think he was quite proud of.
After his retirement, my father was diagnosed with vascular dementia and later also with Alzheimer's. At the age of 77, he had to be moved to a care home. At the beginning he took it quite hard, but as he sank deeper into dementia, the memory of his former existence faded away and so did the longing for it.
During this process I started to take more and more pictures of him. It felt important to do this, while I still had the possibility. I am now visiting my father more often than I have ever done before. We are often flipping through his old albums to try and rekindle those memories that still remain. But our previous roles have been reversed; now I am the one taking pictures of him - and mainly with the same camera that he had pointed at me 40 years ago. While doing so, I think that he can sometimes recognise his former self in me. Thus, photography has become a way to connect both with each other and with the past.
For me personally, it has also become a tool that helps me to manage my own impressions and thoughts during this process. It has given me the opportunity to visualize the experience of my father's condition as well as my own anxiety about growing old and ending up in the same situation.
I have published a short version of the project in a fanzine, but intend to have it published in a photobook by 2025.