Photographer, Filmmaker and Artist Norma Córdova, aka, shesaidred is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the project ‘Fictitious Family’. To see Norma’s body of work, click on any image.

My father was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s in 1997, and after a long struggle with dementia, he passed away in 2007. The intervening ten years were the most difficult years of my life. It profoundly changed the dynamics of my family and my own personal trajectory. Somewhere in those ten years, I picked up a camera and began to develop my craft. Over time, when I had enough emotional distance, I realized that I needed to express some unprocessed feelings, some induced by my family’s response to my dad’s illness, and others simply due to the dissonance that comes from growing up as the daughter of immigrants. Family photographs served as re-found memories. I needed to reacquaint myself with my childhood and try to see if I could find something that our family might have missed. The mere fact that my father could no longer explain or share his perspective anymore pushed this project forward for me. I had the desire to communicate my own personal experience. I turned my camera inwards to express these inner inquietudes.