Birthe Piontek is a photographer born and raised in Germany. After receiving her MFA from the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany, she moved to Canada in 2005. She currently is an assistant professor of Photography in the Audain Faculty of Art. Her photography series  investigates the relationship between memory and identity. Birthe herself intends “ to make visible what is invisible but what can be experienced or felt”. In her series recognizing her grandmother who was recently diagnosed with dementia she photographed her family home as a way of psychologically slowing down the disease. Her image makes the viewer recognize that something is off about the photo, it is not quite right. She swaps objects of her family members in each photograph so they lose their actual function and identity. Her photography images contain metaphors for the unraveling of one’s mind. Birthe claims these series focusing on both her mother and grandmother have helped her “process the feeling of being helpless.”