alzheimer's

[georgef]

This is a photo of my aunt, in the early stages of her Alzheimer's disease; she was that "...old world, salt of the earth..." kind of person, having raised a family through a world war and famine.

I have gotten mixed reviews from people who have known her as to whether this shows the begining of withdrawal or not, and would apreciate your comments as an objective observer....
thanks for looking.

 

[georgef]

...not sure why I can't imbed the image in full scale in the message rather than as a thumbnail you have to click on to enlarge; any ideas? thank you.

 

[Tuolumne]

Photographing subtle changes in mental state is difficult. A photo that depends on an external referent for its quality ("this person has Alzheimer's") will never be a good photo. Your portrait is an excellent character study, regardless of the mental state of its subject. Whether we can attribute a definite mental condition to its subject, though, is impossible to say. Leaving it open to each viewer, rather than telling us what it is, would have been better.

/T

 

[pfoto]

I wouldn't be able to tell just looking at the picture, which is very strong BTW. She's looking very intently at the camera, for sure. What a wonderful face!

After you post up the picture in Manage Attachments, you've got the URL of it, in this case:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=62721&d=1219155427

You then copy that URL and click on the image button in the editor and paste it into the image edit box and click OK. Then preview your post to make sure it's there and submit.

 

[ChrisN]

...not sure why I can't imbed the image in full scale in the message rather than as a thumbnail you have to click on to enlarge; any ideas? thank you.

You need to wrap the image URL with img tags


[ i m g ]http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=62721&d=1219155427[ / i m g ]

remove the spaces in the img tags above, to give you the image displayed in the post.

Nice photo, too, by the way.

 

[Steve Bellayr]

Photos capture only a sliver of the person at a particular time. Exhibiting one photo is hard to capture the essence of an individual is hard. Try photographing in a series of 4 or 8. With that said: I like the photograph very much; everything about the photo works.

 

[oftheherd]

That is a very good portrait. Very strong. But to gather from it anything like alzheimers would be asking too much. You could just as easily get an impression of a stong person, facing whatever life sends her way.

 

[sweathog]

I look at the portrait, and it tells me about a feeling of being lost, of trying so hard to hang on to something.
It shows strength too, but mixed with something else...

 

[bsdunek]

I look at the portrait, and it tells me about a feeling of being lost, of trying so hard to hang on to something.
It shows strength too, but mixed with something else...

I would agree. My Mother-In-Law is in the last stage of Alzheimer's. She started looking like this - just seemed to be looking right through you with out recoganizing you. It is a terrible disease, just slowly taking your mind. Until it's near the end, the victom knows what they can't do, and may become very depressed.
It isn't just older people, either. I had a high school friend that started at 50 and died at 62.
Your aunt is in my prayers.

 

[georgef]

Thank you for your comments...and I agree with your points about not being able to tell from one picture. My aunt was ( she has since passed away) the first person I was exposed to with this disease and she was very close to me, so personally I could see that in this picture. My question was whether or not you, as an objective observer would see the same thing; you answered it very clearly and I cane see why. Thanks again.

Also thanks, PFOTO and Chris on your instructions regarding the image protocols.

george.