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Foreword

« Hey Dad » is a photographic dialogue with my son, A. A’s words appear in the images and in the final text. My answers are in italics. The titles of the photographs correspond to my position as both witness and father. Three people can be identified on the photographs: A, his brother, and myself. The story starts on December 10th, 2010, the day when he was first admitted to hospital.
The fits and relapses are episodes when what are known as positive signs predominate; episodes of agitation interrupt periods which appear to be calm. It is rare that photographers focus on relapses and their effects on patients and their entourages.

Schizophrenia is without a doubt one of illnesses that is the least understood. Sadly, patients suffering from schizophrenia are stigmatised by a society which associates them with negative stereotypes. They are judged to be more dangerous and unpredictable than people suffering from other mental illnesses. Many believe that schizophrenics have double or even multiple personalities . In reality, it is an illness that is a combination of several variable symptoms, which are rarely all present at the same time.

My son, like many others, was confronted with many upsets: the early death of his mother, and the illness at a time when he should have been setting out on his own to live his own life. This story starts in December 2011 with the diagnosis of this severe and chronic disease. Initially I jotted down brief notes to be able to explain to the doctor what my son was going through… Once the initial shock had subsided, the notes became more and more precise in order to ensure that my memory would not alter the reality of what we had endured. Coming to terms with the situation allowed me to approach it in another way, by recording the difficulty of reconciling the outside world with the inner self. The association of words and photographs quickly emerged as the most appropriate method.

The active phases of my son’s illness are periods when he is chronically delirious, suffers from hallucinations, and has the sentiment of being foreign to his environment. Hospitalisation is often required as the symptoms can be so serious that medical treatment is needed. When he is stable, my son keeps to himself, and experiences some difficulty in creating friendly relationships, blocking his socio-professional integration to certain extent. Far from the emotional turmoil during the chronic phases, my family constitutes the solid foundation of a home life characterised by laughter, love and kindness.

Over the past thirty years, photography has converged with art to such an extent that the subject is altered or even falsified. Photographing someone suffering from mental illness is complex, because both the object of the illness and the subject who is ill must be taken into account. Photography has enabled me to record the daily life of a family carrying on despite the illness. The images and texts presented here serve to illustrate the isolation, the confusion as well as the physical suffering.

Geoffroi Caffiery

“The stigmatisation of schizophrenia is a double sentence for the ill”, ref. Le Monde newspaper, science and techno supplement dated 27.09.2017