'It's going to rain all night'

Isabella Ruffatti talks to Alicia Vera about using photography to process her mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis and keep their connection alive

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Before working on Va a Llover Toda la Noche, which translates from Spanish to It’s Going to Rain all Night, Alicia Vera hadn’t worked on anything particularly personal. When she decides to document something, she tells me, this often comes from her own personal curiosity, but while there’s self-exploration involved, it’s not about her.

It’s Going to Rain all Night is something else in the fact that it focuses on Alicia’s mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, which is characterised by memory loss and declining cognitive function, and Alicia’s own grief brought about by a gradual loss of her mother as she knew her. She adds that even though her mother is currently in the milder stages of Alzheimer’s, it’s hard to have a whole conversation with her.

Nostalgic