Gina Martin
Gina Martin has been a force in the photography world for decades. She spent 21 years working for National Geographic representing photographer’s work worldwide. And in 2016, she founded the Bob & Diane Fund. The fund is named after her mother Diane who passed away with Alzheimer’s and her father Bob who was her husband of 50 years and loyal caregiver who died 3 months later. The Fund gives a $5,000 grant each year to support visual storytelling about Alzheimer’s or dementia. This non-profit brings her two passions together – photography and finding a cure for Alzheimer’s. While running the fund, Gina remains active in the larger photo community by attending photo festivals, providing portfolio reviews, judging photo contests, and mentoring emerging photographers. She has a large collection of photography books and prints and has declared that she will be hosting her own intervention.
Gina & Rachael recorded this conversation for The Memory Generation on October 6, 2022. Gina was at her sister’s home in California (although she lives in Washington D.C.) and Rachael was in Portland, Maine.
“They always ate together, breakfast, lunch and dinner - and they couldn't… And she wasn't eating her meals. The nurses had told him. So he set up a table right outside her window with a tablecloth, a little vase with a flower. He brought a meal and a chair and his silverware and he ate and that's when she would start eating. And he documented it and sent me this picture and I said, ‘do not do anything with this. Let me send it to Geographic. This is an amazing image.’ And I sent it to a photo editor and they ended up doing a story.” - Gina Martin speaking about John Paul Bayfield’s project Keeping Mum on The Memory Generation. See more from the project here.
“Our winner from Iran photographed this beautiful image of his family in Iran kind of in one room. It may have been even outside. And then there's a glass window and his father is in the family room by himself. And the family outside is celebrating or talking and communicating and sharing and all that. And then there's the lone image of his father in the same shot in the house alone. And that just to me says so much because I obviously don't know what it's like to live with it, but it feels and looks so lonely. - Gina Martin speaking about Jalal Shamsazaran’s project The Loss of Oral History on The Memory Generation. See more from the project here.
“Our first grantee, Maja Daniels, did a project in France of a hospital ward. It was a memory facility and how they always kept the door to it locked. And so she photographed the people living with it at the door, looking through the window, waiting for someone to come see them, to come take them away… And it was heart wrenching but beautiful work.” - Gina Martin speaking about Maja Daniel’s project Into Oblivion on The Memory Generation. See more from the project here.