I took a lot of photography courses and tried to apply what I learned to revealing more about my relationship with Mike. I took this picture, during a class I took with Larry Fink. He has a distinctive style that involves detaching the flash from the camera and holding it off to the side. Larry […]
I’ve been told that there are three things that you lose when you get old: your memory, your hair and…. I forgot the other one. Funny, right? Not so much. Today I spent more than an hour trying to remember the name of the book I read about a woman who had such an incredible memory, […]
It’s the Limbic System! What is the limbic system? I mentioned this in another post, but it bears repeating. Limbus means ‘border’. What is the limbic system the border of? It is the edge of the cortex, a mostly 6-layered sheet of cells that covers the wrinkly mass of the brain. The cortex is the […]
Looking at this picture tightens up my chest a little bit. I think it was first time I saw Michael crying. It was in his group home. He was always acting out, yelling or hitting himself. Sometimes he would take my hand and try hitting himself with it, usually with a laugh or a smile. […]
I am proud of this portrait. I took this picture at Michael’s school where they brought him from his group home to attend a day program. Mike is profoundly retarded, nonverbal and autistic. I was given permission by the school administration to shadow him and take his picture, which I did on several occasions. On […]
Mike always used to slap himself on the head and bite his hand. Mostly he did both at the same time. Other times he would raise his elbow and bring it down hard onto his side. Maybe he was frustrated. Sometimes he would hit himself on the chest and grunt. I think these were […]
Happy Birthday Mom. You are the best! You were strong when we were growing up. Even in the era of the ‘refrigerator mother’, you said, “I never felt guilty about Michael and you shouldn’t either.” Other parents had children like Michael and you worked with them to start a support network – quite something in […]
In looking at the photographs, I ask myself if I remember what happened at the time or am I picking up cues from the pictures and inferring what must have happened? I do know, that in this first picture, Michael is reaching for me, though it may look like he’s fending me off. Michael liked […]
[Note: part of this post was excerpted and posted previously. ] My aim in this post is to explore the depiction of mental disorders and disabilities in the medium of photography and my personal experience in wrestling with this. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, a disorder is an abnormal physical or mental condition and […]
Imagine that you had an unmanageable child: a child who didn’t understand anything, who sucked up all the care you could give, who seldom responded and did so only after you expended maximal effort. Suppose you had other children. You could not afford private care. If you were offered a solution, would you take it? Suppose there […]
