A Photographer Turns A Lens On His Father's Alzheimer's
They had always been partners, in a way — artists who connected through their work. So, when Gene DiRado began withdrawing from the world, his son rushed toward him — and brought along a camera.
At first, Stephen DiRado thought his dad was dealing with depression. Gene DiRado, then in his late 50s, had become more withdrawn, more forgetful. So Stephen processed his growing concern by doing what he'd done since the age of 12: taking photographs. It was the 1980s, and Stephen schlepped his 8x10 camera and tripod over to his parents' home in Marlborough, Mass., to check in on Gene and make portraits of him.
"I was running toward him with the sense of fear that something was wrong," Stephen
