Interviews/Articles

Oxford-based writer and photographer

Etain O'Carroll

about

Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man

unlocking-the-experience-of-dementia

Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man

(2016-2018)

published in the

European Journal of Life Writing

(University of Groningen Press, March 2022)

This is the story of Alzheimer’s afflicted German photographer Fritz Dressler and his final years in his homevillage Worpswede.

For the first time, I got the artistic freedom to include many of Fritz‘ images - taken when walking with me or his partner -

and to write in-depth about the story’s background.

Find the 31-pages-article-pdf for download here (best for reading on mobile):

https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.11.38399

My heartfelt thanks goes to editor Clare Brant, Professor of 18^th-Century Literature & Culture in the Department of English at King’s College London, and co-Director of the Centre for Life Writing and Research at King’s.

Warm thanks also go to Danielle Battigelli, the Festival director of Photography Oxford home, who strongly believes in the importance of this work. My Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man-online-exhibition as part of Photo Oxford festival 2021 led to Clare Brant’s invitation to contribute to the European Journal of Life Writing (https://ejlw.eu/).

I am also grateful that Dr. Petra van Langen, the Journal Manager, found the patience to get the article published the way I wished to.

The European Journal of Life Writing (EJLW) is an interdisciplinary online journal and an open access research platform that provides a forum for work in the field of all forms of life narratives, with contributions ranging from conceptual to practical and creative work. It is published by the European section of the International Auto/Biography Association (IABA Europe).

See the whole article here: