Alzheimer’s is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and gets worse over time. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events (short-term memory loss). As the disease advances, symptoms can include: problems with language, disorientation (including easily getting lost), mood swings, loss of motivation, not managing self care, and behavioural issues.

As a person’s condition declines, she or he often withdraws from family and society. Gradually, bodily functions are lost, ultimately leading to death.

Here, we have collected 10 Heart Touching Photo Stories related to Alzheimer’s disease. Please click on the image to view complete story.

Living with Alzheimer’s by Kenneth O’Halloran

Photographer Kenneth O’Halloran is best known for documentary projects about his Irish homeland. But here he shares work about his then-girlfriend’s family in Spain as it cares for a father suffering from Alzheimer’s.

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Alzheimer’s by Txomin Txueka

Miren Kerejeta affected by Alzheimer’s disease. Report of photographic documentation in the process of realization, in order to honor those affected by the disease, family members, caregivers and healthcare professionals to raise awareness of the need to dignify and humanize the lives of these people as well as promoting scientific research on Alzheimer’s.

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Grace by Susan Falzone

This ongoing project documents the daily life of my Aunt Grace, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, and the impact the disease has on her family. My father, Joe, is Grace’s only living sibling in the United States and has been her only caregiver since her symptoms began several years ago. He refuses to consider a nursing home for her care. Aunt Grace still lives alone and relies on her brother’s daily visits for food, medicine and, most important, companionship.

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Never Let You Go by Alejandro Kirchuk

This is a series is a long-term project about my grandparents and their struggle against Alzheimer’s disease. They have been married and living for 65 years in their apartment in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which is their small world. My grandmother Monica was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at 82, and from that moment, my grandfather Marcos devoted all his time to take care of her.

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Into Oblivion by Maja Daniels

The proportion of elderly people in western society is constantly rising. Some 24 million people worldwide suffer from dementia and about half of these people have Alzheimer’s disease. The growing number of senior citizens in developed countries is raising the incidence of this disease and scientists predict that the number will have tripled by 2050.

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Living to Leave by Carolina Arantes

Life in elderly homes is often a sad and hard reality. It’s difficult for many of us to imagine ourselves in the situation where death is not that far away. I spent almost one week, visiting Enclos Saint Cesair, a catholic elderly home in Arles, everyday. As in the majority of retreat houses, loneliness and emptiness are impregnated in the ambiance.

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Behind The Mask by Sara Yun

Canary Islands is the Spanish Autonomous Community that has the longest waiting list to diagnose and pay dependent on the average of Spain. The percentage of persons entitled to the support still have not received it, already exceeds 50%. This is the case of Santiago. Santiago has been taking care of his mother since she got bedridden 6 years ago because of the Alzheimer disease, and also of his 57 year old sister suffered by a mental deficiecy and with a muscle atrophy in her legs that unables her to walk by herself.

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Alzheimer Portraits by Alex Ten Napel

In 1996 I began a portrait series about people suffering from Alzheimer’s. I shot the portraits in ‘Wittenberg’ a hospital for elderly people in Amsterdam. It is about losing your life and identity. I wanted to show how Alzheimer’s affects people’s personal life and how it appears on the face. When Alzheimer’s has dissolved the mask of identity you can see human existence right in its face. It moved me to see the decay of the inner so close and it inspired me to make the portraits. The portraits are published in a book and were exhibited at the walls of the hospital where they lived.

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Memories Without Memory By Elisa Gonzalez Miralles

It is very difficult to understand and deal with an Alzheimer patient, its brain reasons of an incomprehensible way for us, and its deterioration is progressive and implacable.
The first objective of this project was to get closer to the mind of one of those people by the observing and living with her every day. As a result I have learned to understand better her thoughts, necessities and feelings.

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Alzheimer’s by Rachel Woolf

This series focuses on Roger and Eleanor Barnard. Roger, 86, has suffered from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s since 1992. I chose to focus my documentary on Alzheimer’s because this disease affects millions of Americans. My intention in documenting Roger and Eleanor was to show both the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s as well as the compassion and care from his wife Eleanor. In the face of this illness, the human capacity for love and care is paramount.

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