A daughter’s love captured

A YOUNG creative’s photograph of her father has netted her a nod in the Little Darlings Youth Portrait Prize.

Anna Macak’s piece My daddy has dementia, he rests a lot is currently on show at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra as one of four finalist pieces in the prize’s eight to 11 age category.

The photo was taken two years ago and captures Macak’s father Gustav, who was diagnosed with dementia due to a brain injury a decade ago, one year before his daughter was born.

“I wanted to take a picture of what was around me because I love my dad,” Macak said. “I took the photo when I was eight years old. I fixed up the lighting afterwards and put it in black and white.

“I’m proud of it being hanged up and mum told me dad cried of happiness when she showed him the photo.”

The work also won first prize in this year’s annual competition run by the Lal Lal Moorabool Photographic Group.

Macak was taught photography by her mother Sonia, who’s been a professional photographer for about 20 years and exhibited at local and national galleries.

She said her daughter’s depiction of Gustav, who now lives in a nursing home, is an incredible preservation of his memory.

“I think sometimes with dementia, people lose a bit of themselves and it’s that history,” she said.

“To be part of an exhibition, for myself and my husband, when I told him that was happening he was really touched. It was like, ‘yes, I still matter.’

“For Anna, it was like a family capturing of a dear moment. We told Gustav he’s like the Mona Lisa now hanging in the National Portrait Gallery.”

Anna’s work is on display until Sunday 15 September, and she and her mother intend to visit the gallery in person with the aim of photographing the experience for Gustav.