La Demencia (2011 - 2017)

The nurse aide shaves Abuelo on a Monday afternoon.

He reads the Bible aloud to his wife because she can't comprehend written language anymore.

He forgets to chew in the middle of a meal.

Paint stained, he looks over the progress on a current art piece.

Abuela calls him inside from a quick walk outside.

Abuela can't remember who are in the photos and why they're important.

After a conversation about boyhood, he drew this.

Cindy, his daughter and primary caregiver, walks away from her dilapidated childhood home in Northlake, Illinois.

Puzzles above 500 pieces confuse him.

An outdoor sculpture by Patrick Dougherty at Fernwood Botanical Garden, a nature preserve less than five miles away from where he lives.

Near a previous residence in Keene, Texas, he tries to recall the surrounding streets.

Drafted into the Korean War, he served in Cook County Hospital's Psychiatric ward as an orderly.

Unused oxygen tubing lies on a TV stand near his bed.

Cindy counts out meds for the week.

The nurse aide trims his oxygen depraved fingers.

He is slowly dehydrating from the inside out.

He doesn't get enough oxygen when he tries to sleep flat on his back.

A walk at the beach ends among seagulls.

This series began in 2011 when I learned my grandpa (mi abuelo) only had six months to live. He fought his failing health for six years after that. The decline of both of mis abuelos health and the journey to their final resting place brought me closer to both of them in a way that only creating shared experiences can.
I was never close to mi abuelo until he was nearly dead. He was a Korean War draftee, blue collar worker, self-taught painter and above all else, a proud Puerto Rican. I grew up as a Hispanic with no real connection to my culture.
To create these images I traveled to Michigan, Illinois or Texas to document our new memories and capture his old experiences every three to six months before they were erased forever.
This series’ aims to add to the conversations of palliative care, identity, memory, aging and end-of-life experiences that affect a larger segment of the Hispanic population face daily. To create spaces for adult children to have difficult conversations with their elders.

Using a dibond aluminum (for 20 inches and above), or aluminum (for up to 8x10), photos are are available in the following sizes (in inches):

4x6

8x10

20x30

30x40

48x60

Contact Rich for a full price list.

Videos

Originally created for the Coalition for Compassionate Care California's 2017 Palliative Care Summit, this video looks into how some people recharge and refresh themselves from their caregiving duties.

Thoughts from Cynthia Beckermeyer while watching images of her as a primary caregiver.

Installations & Publications

Screen Shot 2020-07-02 at 10.07.34 AM.png

Processed with VSCO with b1 preset

Photo Feb 18, 1 32 26 AM.jpg

Screen Shot 2021-01-20 at 2.57.14 PM.png