Wandering Off
or perhaps I should call it Silver Alert?
On December 1, I started making a staged self-portrait of a woman dealing with dementia who wandered away from her home on a winter night, without her coat, hat and gloves. I had only taken the picture of myself in my studio, with a gray wig and a cane, and I was working on creating the rest of the room, when there was a news story of a woman who wandered away from a nursing home in Kenosha, WI, and was found frozen to death 7 hours later. Nobody investigated the open-door alarm, nobody checked on the residents, and the security guard left the campus for 2 hours in the middle of the night.
Tonight, I looked for the news article to link to this Substack article and found several to choose from, 2022 to 2024 in Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky: nursing home patient frozen - Google Search
Horrific! You entrust your loved one to expensive 24-hour care and this is what is happening everywhere.
I created the scene from photos of our front door, recliner, my mother-in-law’s window and curtains, my recliner with her remote holder, handmade throw, wallpaper & border online samples, a switch plate, family picture of my grandmother’s maternal family reunion, stock frame, online coat rack, my gloves, hat, coat, slippers, and an end table with a lamp.
I even made separate photos in my studio of the Kleenex box, wadded tissues, and a plate that I smeared ketchup on with a dirty fork. I gathered junk mail, situated it just so in a pile, and took a photo of it to add to the bottom shelf of the end table. The scene outside the front door is a photo I took at night of our front sidewalk lined with snow, the street, and the farmhouse across the street.
I even got permission from a friend to drive to her home and take several pictures of her black iron railing outside of her house. She warned the neighbors that I would be there with a camera and tripod…don’t call the police!
I composited all of it together and added shadows and light.
Now I plan to bring the whole Seeing Dementia series together in a book or zine.
Your portrait is beautifully poignant. I look forward to your"Seeing Dementia" series. You know what is neglected and you know what is significant.
As one who is not very creative, and looks at your image and says “picture,” I’m very appreciative of your taking time to share the creativity that made the final image. Fascinating, Cindy!