The idea of the project is to show the evolution of the disease that affects my father Giovanni and the consequences that this situation has over my family.
The title, an alteration of the catholic invocation “in the name of the Father”, comes from my interest, or let us say, my obsession with hands and gestures.

In 2007 Giovanni was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and even if this fact, did not change much our lives straight away, in the following years the disease has taken his toll on my family more and more, massively changing our habits and our relations.

I started taking pictures of my father back in 2011 and at the beginning it was as natural as it was casual: I simply thought this was a good thing to do. As the number of images increased, I became more and more aware of what I was doing, thanks to the support from friends and colleagues. In hands and gestures I was finding a way to document the progress of the disease and how my father and my family have to coexist with it.

The project does not yet have a final form. I wish that this project, even if only in small part, could increase the awareness of what I think Alzheimer is: a social disease, that destroys the mind and the body of someone dear to you, but it also affects at the same time the family and everyone who loves the patient and takes care of him.

This work is shot, mostly, using a Canon AE1 with a 50mm lens on Fomapan 400 film.

It has been featured on:
Japan Camera Hunter – Petapixel – ClickMagazine #60

“Nelle mani del padre” is on Instagram @in_the_hands_of_the_father