Martina Martorelli (b. 1998) is a contemporary photographer interested in the research and visual narration current societal issues. Her series Sixty Days is a devastating portrait, which details how Covid-19 impacted the daily lives of her grandparents–in particular her grandfather who was recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Continue below for more.

“Get the net. Look how many butterflies, let's get them”

“Mom, mom, come”
”You see the colleagues are there…”

“We need to print the new play-boy, come on, get closer. Run Luca, take the magazine and let’s see. Print, print!”

“Parkinson’s disease is a brain disorder that leads to tremors, stiffness and difficulty in walking, balance and coordination. They may also have mental and behavioral changes, sleep problems, depression, memory difficulties, and fatigue. Parkinson’s disease occurs when nerve cells in the basal ganglia, an area of the brain that controls movement, become damaged and / or die. Normally, these nerve cells, or neurons, produce an important brain chemical known as dopamine. When neurons die or deteriorate, they produce less dopamine, which causes Parkinson’s movement problems. Scientists still don’t know what causes dopamine-producing cells to die.”

https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/parkinsons-disease
National Institute on Aging NIH

If the Parkinson’s disease sufferer is not subjected to any type of treatment, the disease progresses in a disabling manner.
Hoehn And Yahr Scale:
-stage 1: unilateral disease;
-stage 2: bilateral disease without involvement of the balance;
-stage 3: mild to moderate disease, some independent postural instability;
-stage 4: overt disease, still able to walk independently;
-stage 5: patient confined to bed or in a wheelchair.

“Nina, there is a reporter. Because?! Send it away gradually…”
”Beni there is no reporter”
”SEND HER AWAY!”

This is a photographic story about how the pandemic, covid-19, quickly changed the daily lives of two elderly people and in particular one with a recent diagnosis of Parkinson’s.
The latter, after days of home oxygen, was hospitalized for two months in the Vannini hospital in Rome; unfortunately Covid had caused Parkinson’s syn- drome to degenerate quickly, my grandfather could no longer be looked after by his wife, he needed more assistance.

Hospitalization, long stay in Covid, RSA.

60 days of isolation from loved ones due to Covid, for a person with Parkinson’s, is irreversible damage. He could not receive the right treatment for his illness and so it degenerated into total immobilization and senile dementia. We made him go home in early May, to be with his family, but the problems increased day by day until 05/20/21 he was hospitalized again. Pneumonia from Covid-19 had returned, perhaps never gone completely, and Septicemia had arrived.
On 05/27/21 they made us all enter the hospital in turn, one at a time, to greet him through the glass. We already understood. The next day I went into my grandmother’s house, only the memory of him remained.

Martina on Instagram