About 7 years ago my mother was diagnosed with some type of neurodegenerative disease. It quickly became apparent that it was Lewy Body Dementia, primarily characterised by hallucinations and Parkinson-type symptoms. From talking to my mother about her hallucinations, which are as real to her as any physical manifestation in your life, I felt compelled to produce a series of images that try to capture what she experiences. Sometimes when discussing my mother's condition with friends, the conclusion is drawn that she must be happy in her own world, oblivious to day-to-day stresses. But I think that often she is experiencing a living nightmare; at best surrounded by imaginary people who won't talk to her but need her table for lunch and at worst by deformed children, who confuse her but whom she feels she needs to feed and keep safe.

Soldiers

One of the earliest changes we noticed in Mum was in her visual perception, there were other early indications but they weren't as obvious to us back then. On holiday with my sister, she mistook a row of folded beach umbrellas for soldiers in their ceremonial uniform.

A photo that shows two images layered over each over, one of folded beach parasols and one of soldiers in ceremonial dress