A photographer captured the last ten years his parents spent together, and the heartbreaking photos provide an intimate look at enduring love and loss

• Fine Arts photographer Paddy Summerfield took photos of his aging parents over the course of ten years.
• Toward the end of their 60-year marriage, his mother developed Alzheimer’s, and his father took on the role of caretaker for his wife.
• He compiled the images into a personal and touching photo essay called “Mother and Father.”
• The heart-wrenching collection showcases his parents’ unwavering devotion to each other and provides an intimate look at enduring love and loss.
• The resulting images may break your heart.

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Summerfield told Business Insider that he and his parents lived in their North Oxford England home throughout the series.

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The garden in the backyard was where the photographer’s parents spent a lot of their time.

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The majority of the photos were taken from the vantage point of a second story window overlooking the garden.

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“I was living at home with my parents — they were a subject close at hand,” Summerfield said.

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The home’s garden was maintained by Summerfield’s father.

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His gardening was one of the main commonplace activities shown in the photo series.

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“My father read and wrote in the garden, they ate outside, my father grew flowers that my mother gathered,” Summerfield said.

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“There was no need to travel to exotic spectacular places — I could lean out the window and take a picture at almost any moment,” he said.

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Summerfield said that he had taken pictures of his parents throughout his whole life.

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He would print them as collections and put them in albums to give to his parents as Christmas gifts.

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But then a close friend encouraged him to turn the snapshots into a photo essay.

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From 1997 to 2007, he took thousands of photos of his parents.

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He said he knew he would continue photographing them as long as they were living.

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He eventually had to filter through them and select photos for his series.

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He looked for the photos “that had poetry.”

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He also wanted the photos to truly tell the story of his parents’ relationship.

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“It’s cumulative — each picture does not tell the story, but together they do,” Summerfield said.

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“It is a photo novel,” he said.

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Summerfield said he chose photos that are at a distance.

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He captured his parents from behind so that “they become everybody’s parents.”

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His series is comprised of 83 photos.

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So there are still thousands taken in that 10-year span that haven’t been viewed by the public.

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“There is a whole mass of work that has never been seen,” Summerfield said.

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Summerfield said that when your parents are aging, the moments that you have are precious.

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He said he just focused on crafting one good photo after another.

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“It’s absorbing, and also a distraction from focusing on what was happening,” Summerfield said.

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“It helped to be busy, to photograph obsessively,” he said.

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Summerfield’s parents were married for over 60 years.

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They were almost childhood sweethearts.

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Summerfield’s mother would often watch his father in the garden lovingly from inside the house.

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“My mother would see him through the kitchen window and — so she said — she never caught him actually working, but he would be standing admiring what he had just done, or thinking about what he would do next,” Summerfield said.

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Summerfield said that his parents were understanding about their son’s project.

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After all, their son was repeatedly taking photos of them.

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But one day his father got a tad aggravated with him.

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His father snapped at his son, annoyed that he was taking so long to get the shot he wanted.

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But for the most part, Summerfield’s mother and father were very patient with being photographed over the years.

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Most of the photo series takes place at their Oxford home …

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… but scenes of the family vacationing in North Wales are also included.

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They stayed at the same cottage whenever they made the trip.

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They would return to it during the summer for over 50 years.

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It was a pleasant environment.

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“Wales was a peaceful and familiar place for them,” Summerfield said.

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They would admire the sea or take a walk along the beach.

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Sometime during Summerfield’s project, his mother began to develop Alzheimer’s.

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She became gripped by memory loss.

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She also became entirely dependent upon her husband.

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Summerfield said that his mother’s illness frightened her.

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She once told him, “The world doesn’t look like it used to.”

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Summerfield said it was hard for his mother to discuss her experience with the disease.

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He said he would watch children’s TV shows with her to cheer her up.

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Anything to make her laugh with jokes and general silliness.

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Like back in Oxford, Summerfield kept his distance when photographing his parents in North Wales.

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The North Wales portion is placed at the mid-section of the series, breaking up the scenes at the family’s Oxford home.

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A raven appears in several of the frames.

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In multiple cultures, the bird is considered a symbol for death.

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It’s also represented as a messenger of sorts.

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And they can also symbolize the prediction of future events.

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Summerfield was aware of the symbolism that the raven represented.

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Summerfield said that his father was his mother’s lone caretaker.

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“My father cared for her right to the end,” Summerfield said.

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“He did not want any help from me, in looking after my mother,” Summerfield said.

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“I could see his sadness, but he didn’t speak of it,” Summerfield said.

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In 2000, Summerfield’s mother died.

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She was 86 years old.

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Summerfield continued to live with his father after his mother’s death.

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He said he looked after him in his final years.

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“We didn’t really discuss feelings; it was more about the household routines,” Summerfield said.

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One day, Summerfield said he saw his father in the garden as the afternoon sun broke through the trees.

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“He raised his arm,” Summerfield said. “Is it a greeting to the light, or a farewell? To me, this felt like a really spiritual moment.”

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His father died in 2008, eight years after his wife.

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Summerfield said he’s glad that he took the time to record his parents.

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He said it feels like something that he could give back to them.

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“My pictures make their love and care for each other into something enduring,” Summerfield said.