God's Country

This thesis concerns aging, blindness, and deafness in the isolated Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan (UP). I investigated the effect of extreme isolation on Lauri Lappi, a 90-year-old lifelong male resident. This project was photographed and documented in Champion-Humboldt, Michigan after several interviews with the Lappi family. Available evidence included censuses of the Upper Peninsula, sparse interviews and archival photographs. I discovered and documented the economic, physical, emotional, and spiritual struggle of the Lappis to care for their patriarch as he faces his own death at home in the UP`s harsh landscape. This first documentary effort records and memorializes UP Northern Scandinavian traditions and isolation through the life of a first generation Finnish immigrant within the broader context of human aging and elder care.

Author

• Levine, Reyna Abigale

Language

• en

Keyword

• Blind
• Economy
• Dementia
• Michigan
• Elder Care
• Deaf

Date created

• 2013

Type of Work

• Master's Thesis

License

• All rights reserved

Rights statement

• In Copyright

GW Unit

• New Media Photojournalism

Degree

• M.A.

Advisor

• Carmody, John
• Sterner, Susan

Committee Member(s)

• Beasely, Toren
• Carmody, John
• Bulisova, Gabriela
• Elfers, Steve

Persistent URL

•  https://scholarspace.library.gwu.edu/etd/m326m191m