I examined a photo series by Texan photographer Allison Hess documenting the struggles of individuals diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. I first discovered her work via an article on CNN showcasing her work with one particular couple, but when I followed the link to her personal site at the bottom of the page, I found that the photos highlighted on CNN were in fact part of a larger series entitled A Light in the Dark, which highlights patients at Country House Residences, a memory-care facility in Lincoln, Nebraska.
I was initially drawn to the images showcased on CNN because they had been shot in black and white. I am not a high-end professional photographer by any means, but when I do photography work or am looking at the work of others, I often feel that capturing images in black and white removes distractions while capturing the essence and feeling of what it is you are shooting. You find yourself looking at people’s eyes more, and at backgrounds less. I felt black and white was especially appropriate in these images because it captured something of the haunting quality of Alzheimer’s. It is a disease that robs patients of their memories and their identities, and I have often thought that hard as it is for one’s grandmother or grandfather to no longer recognize you, it must be even harder to live in that constant state of confusion and fear. I feel that these images capture some of that fear. When I examined the larger series on Hess’s personal site, I found that not all had been shot in black and white, but even those shot in color have a quiet, muted, and vaguely melancholy feel that fits well with the images in monochrome.
The captions included on CNN are purely informative in nature, though the slideshow is accompanied by an article on Hess and the inspiration behind her work. The series is arranged much differently on her site–one scrolls from left to right across the page to view the images. Informative captions are found underneath each image or cluster of images, and brief blurbs describing Alzheimer’s or Hess’s inspirations link different sections. I noticed some grammatical/structural errors in Hess’s captions which were vaguely distracting, and I personally was not fond of the layout on her site. However, I felt the quality of her photography to be excellent, its subject evergreen, and the series overall a perfect demonstration of all that can be said with very few words.