Bob Ibold is known to many as “The Mask Man.”
He is an expert collector and curator of masks from around the world. But Ibold does not use his masks to hide or obscure his identity. He embraces who he is, especially when it comes to the discussion of his cognitive decline.
Ibold was recently featured in the American Journal of Public Health, in an article titled “A Typical Day With Mild Cognitive Impairment.”
As the primary caregiver for his sister, Ibold witnessed firsthand what deterioration means, and he has seen some in his own daily life.
“All these years that I’ve known that something was going on in my brain, I can see a curve,” he has said. “It’s always been a pretty steady curve going slowly downhill.”
This steady curve that he describes, however is not typical of aging. Instead, he has mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Patients with MCI have more memory and thinking problems than their peers but are not disabled by the symptoms. They have an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease but also may return to normal cognition.
Tigist Hailu was planning a capstone project while pursuing her Master of Public Health degree when she learned of the importance of “What’s a typical day?” The Penn Memory Center director for diversity in research and education wanted to build an engaged community of research participants who, through photography and stories, could change the way others think about Alzheimer’s disease research by adding a touch of humanity. Hailu hoped her work would lead to an increase in participation in this research, especially for African-Americans.
Funded by grants from Penn Medicine CAREs and Penn Medicine Neurosciences, Hailu recruited a dozen participants — including Ibold — diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment and asked them to capture a typical day through a series of photographs. Over the course of a week, each participant photographed the people, places and things that made their lives easier or more difficult as they lived with MCI.
Participants then sat down with Hailu to discuss their thoughts behind each photo. Hailu analyzed these interviews with the guidance of her advisor, social epidemiologist Dr. Carolyn Cannuscio, to determine how patients live with MCI. This was to be the conclusion of the project, until Hailu opened an email from Damari McBride.
McBride, a New York-based photographer, educator, and art activist, was seeking a partner for a community engagement photography project, and Hailu had been looking for a way to expand her project. McBride volunteered to stage professional portraits of each Typical Day participant.
To capture the dramatic, lively photos, he employed a technique called “one key lighting,” in which there is one light and a black background. In the foreground, however, “they are still upbeat,” McBride said. “We wanted to keep them in color to highlight the contrast, and we wanted to keep it simple, yet stick to this dramatic style.”
To learn more about the project, visit www.mytypicalday.org.
— by Darby Marx and David Ney