Helen Rimell’s mother was her rock, “a ray of light in a troubled world,” she says. In 2015, Rimell’s mother was diagnosed with early onset vascular dementia. That’s when Rimell, a documentary photographer based in Britain, started documenting her relationship with her mother.

“I began this project as a way of preserving her, of keeping who she was alive,” Rimell says. Her intimate photos, which portray all aspects of her mother’s life, are at times brutal and heartbreaking. “[There’s] no hiding from the horrors and indignities, the true face of dementia, the pain, heartbreak, fear, and all that is lost.”

Rimell’s work has received this year’s Bob & Diane Fund Award, a photographic award dedicated to work that increases the understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. It was started by Gina Martin, who lost her mother to Alzheimer’s.

“Helen’s images of her mother and family made an immediate impact on us when looking at this year’s submissions for the Bob and Diane Fund grant,” says photographer Chip Somodevilla, who served on this year’s jury. “The images were intense and unblinking in their intimacy, all on top of their strong use of color and composition.”

The award comes with $5,000, which Rimell plans to use to produce a photo book that will include the “raw, vulnerable and emotional messages” she wrote to a loved one as she cared for her mother over the past few years. “It [has been] an incredibly difficult journey for us both, but one that I have chosen to take with her for as long as I can,” she said.