I made this documentary when I was still in school. The theme was “Homo Empathicus” for the Photofestival BredaPhoto.

Phillip Toledano was a great inspiration, I proposed my idea and got selected.

It was my first exposition and got to meet so many interesting people, such a wonderful experience.

Today both Frans and Lulu are no longer here, I’m grateful for the chance they gave me. Below a short piece of the text I submitted.

For several years, I have known a man who suffers from a form of dementia that affects the communicating part of the brain.

An engineer by training, the man was a talented draftsman and was into photography.

When you walk through his living room, you cannot look beside his immense collection of cameras, he was a collector and amateur photographer with his own darkroom. No doubt a novice photographer can learn a lot from him. When I started photography, he was no longer able to engage in extensive conversations. Unfortunately, because I had many questions I wanted to ask him.

From the latter I started from, the missed opportunity for knowledge.

This photo series is about a man suffering from Pick's disease.

Disorientation, memory problems, difficulty recognizing faces are a few features of the disease.

The disease is incurable and affects the frontal cortex, rendering speech impossible, eventually stopping the kidneys and heart.

You see how the woman tries to maintain contact with her demented partner and the way the man's life is led.