Virgil DiBiase

"My Husband Won't Tell Me His First Name" : Portraits of Dementia

January 4 - February 28, 2019

“My husband won’t tell me his first name.” Judy C., Parkinson’s dementia

De men tia: A chronic or persistent disorder of the mental process caused by brain disease or injury and marked by memory disorders, personality changes, and impaired reasoning.

Alzheimer's is the most common type of dementia. There are 5.5 million people with Alzheimer's in the USA and that number will triple by mid-century. It has been over 100 years since it was discovered yet we have no effective treatment. We spend more on Viagra, popcorn and anti-aging cream than we do on Alzheimer's research. One in 3 of us will develop the disease and one in 2 will care for someone with Alzheimer's. Ultimately, at the end stages, many will be warehoused in understaffed, under skilled nursing homes and subjected to social isolation and pharmacological sedation, and 50% will die within 6 months.

With this project, I wish to humanize a truly dehumanizing disease. Behind these statistics are people with a full range of emotions: humor, anger, longing, fear, love, and hope. I am a neurologist and these are my patients. Look at these portraits as if you are looking in the mirror. It is our destiny.

"When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened." - Mark Twain

ABOUT THE ARTIST: Virgil DiBiase is a photographer and neurologist living in rural Indiana on a small farm with his wife and two donkeys. His work has been featured in Burn Magazine, Black and White Magazine, and Don’t Take Pictures and exhibited at Rangefinder Gallery, Colorado Photographic Arts Center, Griffin Museum of Photography, Southeast Center for Photography, and Fort Wayne Museum of Art, among others. He was named a Critical Mass Finalist in 2017 and 2018. https://vdibiase.zenfolio.com/