You can call me Nana by Will Harris. Published by Overlapse.
You can call me Nana is a layered ode to watching a loved one succumb to dementia, while simultaneously revealing tender details of the past and navigating shifting familial roles. How does one gracefully battle the cruel dementia ghost? Will Harris brings his Nana’s voice into the narrative with handwritten excerpts from conversations as well as recorded audio loops (‘Evelyn Beckett Audio’ on his website) mixed with distortion that reads as being reflective of her brain activity. Archival photographs and images of the time-worn family home add perspective. Toward the end of the book, Last Breakfast gives us a portrait of Nana where Harris matched the length of the exposure with the amount of time it took her to eat her meal (kind of brilliant). In the end, it is the love that Will has for Nana that makes this book an extraordinary act of devotion.
Laura Moya is the Director of Photolucida, in Portland, Oregon. She organizes Photolucida’s biennial Portfolio Reviews event, Critical Mass programming, and Portland Photo Month. She has reviewed, juried, and curated for many organizations – most recently the HUMAN/NATURE exhibition at the Lishui Photography Festival.
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