Photographic Treatment 1

Photographic Treatment © consists of a series of five books, Daily Photo Dose 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, each with thirty black and white photographic diptychs collected and edited by Laurence Aëgerter.

Conducted in collaboration with neurologists, gerontologists and psychologists, the project aims to provide an image-based therapeutic tool to improve the well-being of senile dementia patients.

While dementia can’t be cured, the ways that we care for people with the disease can be improved, and that is what Aëgerter is seeking to do with this series. Brain stimulation is especially important for individuals suffering from the adverse effects of dementia, as it has proven to be helpful in slowing down the process of brain degeneration, according to the brain plasticity principle ‘Use It or Lose It’.

It is Aëgerter’s belief that pairing images is a powerful strategy to stimulate brain activity. The process of recognising connections between two images engages specific cognitive functions, involving associative creativity and fantasy. Photographic Treatment © also seeks to improve the well-being of individuals with dementia through the social interaction they have with their carers in the process of looking at the photographs and making connections. The series is an art project, but it was also a finalist for an innovation care award in the Netherlands, confirming its integration within specialised scientific criteria accepted by experts in the field of caregiving.