Dear Granddad

  • Jonjo Borrill
I remember ringing my mum on Mother’s Day last year to ask her if she’d received the flowers I’d sent. That’s when she told me my Granddad had died in the night.

That whole day was surreal. When people close to me had died previously, I remember being so upset and distraught over it. But when my Granddad passed, it felt just like a normal day, which made it pretty damn weird for me. Similarly, none of my family members were particularly close to him, so I guess they empathized with my feelings of distance.

There are two key reasons why I embarked on this series:
The first is my overwhelming fear and obsession with dementia, which I feel sadly took both my Granddad and Nan from me long before they actually died. The second was to learn about my Granddad and tell the story of his life. We had never been close which frustrated me and made me struggle to feel sad about his passing. The way I look at it is that, as dementia took over, he barely knew himself by the time he died, and neither did I.

I chose to use the method of photomontage so that I could create a visually interesting series of images for an audience outside of my family. My goal in creating ‘Dear Granddad’ is to present a series that people can not only connect with due to its pleasing aesthetic, but also to expose the public to the subject of dementia. This disease is still a taboo topic that, unfortunately, people are uncomfortable talking about. Through my series I hope audiences will feel more open to talking about their own experiences with dementia.