Personal: Yah Yah

My grandparents live down the street from us. They’ve been in Australia for almost 20 years, but don’t speak any English. They are content with their lives here, but to me they’ve never seemed completely comfortable.

Yah Yah (grandfather) and Ah Nah’s (grandmother) small flat is filled with mismatched drapery, odd bits of furniture and tupperware containers. Dad tries to buy them new things, but they rarely accept. 

Yah Yah used to be a policeman. To help himself remember, he writes. He writes diary entries, shopping lists, and notes down the weather report everyday. He never throws his writings away, instead adds it to the untidy piles in his bedroom corner.

Yah Yah has Alzheimer’s. He has trouble remembering and is often moody. Ah Na looks after him with quiet unwavering dedication.

This series won the National Geographic Travel Scholarship to Antarctica, was finalist in both the Doug Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize, the Olive Cotton Award and the Head On Portrait Prize.