This project will help explain Face Blindness (Prosopagnosia), a condition I have and deal with daily. It keeps me from remembering people’s faces and names. I have learned to recognize people by visible clues like the color of their hair or unusual mannerisms. The following photos are examples of my Face Blindness in action as my grandma and I run errands at Old Town Walking Mall in Winchester, VA.
As we walked, a lady waved and said “hello” to me. I looked at her, replied, and visited with her for a bit, but the moment I looked away, I could not remember her face…
We stopped by our first store, “Back to the Media,” a retro video game store. The girl working the counter today is nice, and I think I have seen her before. I cannot remember her face, but I vividly remember her having a nose piercing and green hair. She seems like a great person; at the very least, I wish I could remember her name.
After leaving the store, we saw some women taking their children for a stroll. My grandma stopped and said “hello” to them, and I asked if I could take their photo. Two of the three wore sunglasses, making it difficult to identify their facial features or tell them apart.
I stopped and said “hello” to the police officer patrolling the walking mall. Although this uniform was a unique identifier, anyone could be wearing that uniform, and I would think it was the same person.
As we were walking, we saw a female worker cleaning the tables of a restaurant just before they opened. I said hello and waved to be polite. In the short time we talked, I could not find any recognizable features to help me remember her in the future.
We arrived at my grandma’s favorite store, Nibblins, famous for its fudge. The woman rang up our order and asked if I remembered her name. This is, and always will be, one of the most uncomfortable moments because every time I have to say, “No.” I realize that the answer will trouble most people, which is something I have never gotten used to.
As we left Nibblins, we passed a couple sitting at a table. I could not help but think about my face blindness. I have been dealing with not remembering people’s faces or even their names for most of my life. When someone who knows me greets me, it makes me anxious trying to recall them because I know they will be hurt or bothered when I cannot remember. It also got me thinking about how my condition would affect trying to build a relationship with a potential girlfriend. Would she take it as an offense and not want to get to know me?
I am happy that I can remember what I look like. Some people with severe face blindness do not. Face blindness is not curable; even though it typically does not get worse, there is medical evidence showing that it could if a person experienced head trauma. In the back of my mind, I worry that something like this might happen to me.
The people close to me that I regularly visit or see, like my longtime friends and family, are the people I do remember. Like my grandma, I can remember her face and recognize her in a crowd. I can remember her smile and the way her eyes shine. In my world of faceless individuals, she and the rest of my friends and family are the ones I hope never to forget.
