Documenting My Father

 For the first year of this project, I only took photographs of my father’s belongings and surroundings- I was too scared to photograph his face for worries that people would look at him and think, ‘oh yeah, he looks like an alcoholic’ - I didn’t want that to be the case with project. I didn’t want to reinforce the stereotype but hoped to show that my father was a real person, with a personality & a background of fantastic achievements and by doing so has given me the chance to spend a lot of quality time with my Dad and has brought us closer together definitely. I feel I understand the situation better through photographing it. It was incredibly difficult to make portraits of my dad as I would be left with photographic reminders of my dad’s physical & mental deterioration which I wouldn’t be able to escape from. I remember taking a portrait of my dad- the first photograph anyone had taken of him in 6 years and feeling so incredibly overwhelmed by how accurate a portrayal of the man he was now that I realised the huge importance of photographing my dad- to remember my dad accurately whether the memories be sad or comforting. I often found myself comparing old photographs to recent ones I had taken- allowing me to contemplate and understand the man my father used to be and how he came to be in the circumstances he is now.

When I began this project, I never realised how important and how life changing it would be. Looking back over the past 2 and a half years I suppose this experience has been quite therapeutic although not obvious to me at the time. It has made me stronger as a person and has also brought my family together. I never dreamt I would be able to talk about such a personal project to complete strangers. But I feel that this project is a story that needs to be told. So many people are going through similar circumstances and I’m so very lucky that I have the complete support of my family to carry out such a personal project. I have also had incredible support from my dad who understands why I am doing this. He is such a creative man and has always encouraged me to be the best I can be and is very proud all my achievements :)

Thank you for the question, please feel free to contact me again with any more !

Georgina