The Strange Ones – A Mother’s Story by Her Son #celebratephotography

We were thrilled to come across this series by Tony Luciani on feature shoot. The Strange Ones is stunning and will take you on an emotional rollercoaster particularly if you have any experience with dementia

Fast-forward by one year, and Tony’s ninety-one year old mother was no longer able to look after herself. She had suffered a fall and broke her hip the year Tony had bought his first camera, this occurred around the same time that her dementia began to set in. Unable to look after herself, she moved in with her son. How best to rekindle her inner spark and make her feel her presence in his flat was meaningful? Tony showed his mom sketches and encouraged her to engage in make-believe by acting out what she saw; eventually she was comfortable enough in front of the camera to pose without any prompting. Tony elaborates: “The subsequent sessions began to get more complex as my ideas developed. Her recollections and her feelings became a beautiful story to tell”. Photography was the medium that sealed this new connection between Tony and his mother and brought everything together.

Aside from his objective to rekindle his mother’s inner spark, through The Strange Ones Tony wanted to document the story of one person’s experience of coming to term with ageing, memory loss, and physical decline. At ninety-three years old, his mother still has the energy to live a happy existence; the collaboration between the pair provided Tony a new sense of meaning in his own life too. Tony explains: “The more I reflect on Mom’s story by posting these photographs on social media, the more people who see the pictures express a profound association by relaying their own experiences with age and dementia. These images have struck a chord with many individuals. Life is not about waiting to die. It’s about wanting to live”.

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