As I Found It. My Mother’s House

A poignant study of memory, dementia, and aging parents

American photographer, writer, and teacher Russell Hart offers a highly focused visual essay about memory and the ways in which dementia destroys identity and personal history. The book’s images are also an intimate study, through idiosyncratic objects and their settings, of an aging parent. The author created the photographs in his mother’s house of over forty years after cognitive decline made it impossible for her to stay. Some of the images show the home’s interiors as he emptied it out for sale. Others are close-ups of the hundreds of boxed arrangements of objects assembled by his mother, a hoarder, for both practical and sentimental purposes. Yet the book’s narrative is sparing, leaving room for viewers to find evocations of their own experience, of caring for struggling family members and preserving a lifetime’s memories.

Russell Hart is a Virginia-based photographer and author. Editor at American Photo magazine for 25 years, he currently teaches at the New York City’s School of Visual Arts. His artwork has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; deCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA; Harnett Museum, University of Richmond, VA; Griffin Museum, Winchester among others, and is included in several collections.