Alejandro Kirchuk is an award-winning Argentinean photographer whose work has been published in various print media, and exhibited in Argentina, the United Kingdom, and the United States. His project Never Let You Go won the first prize in the daily life stories category in the 2012 World Press Photo Contest. It is the story of his grandparents Monica and Marcos, who were married for 65 years. In 2007 Monica was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and Marcos devoted himself to her care. Alejandro Kirchuk’s pictures elegantly trace the ways in which the disease changed their lives. As Monica’s illness progressed, she became more dependent on her husband, whose life was also substantially affected by her condition; at the same time however, supporting his wife gave Marcos a new reason to live, and allowed him to show aspects of his personality which had never been displayed before.
According to Alejandro Kirchuk, the aim of this project is to raise awareness about how to deal with Alzheimer’s disease, to show how the illness changes the life of the people who live close to the patient, and to encourage them to go through the situation. Monica passed away in 2011 in her apartment in Buenos Aires, next to her husband who now had to overcome his sorrow and loneliness. The project’s title in Spanish, La noche que me quieras (The night I want), is the name of the tango Monica sang before losing her memory.
At the same time, it seems to me that this project is also about love at its best. You will not see candlelight here, neither the moon, nor a bottle of the finest wine; this is the real thing. And the real thing is this amount of courage, this degree of devotion, and this level of grace.
1 comment:
Yes this is the essence of love.
So far removed from glamorous
commercials of couples as the Earth
from Mars.
elastigirl
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