Mark Sennet: A Celebrity Photographer Turns His Lens to Alzheimer’s

For 25 years, Mark Sennet worked as a photojournalist and celebrity photographer for Life and People Magazine. He has photographed royals, presidents, sports legends, and celebrities, from Muhammad Ali, to Robin Williams, to Ronald and Nancy Reagan, to actors on the sets of blockbuster films like The Empire Strikes Back and E.T. 

Mark’s career took an unexpected turn when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2022. He and his wife Pam Sennet moved from Los Angeles to Roswell, Georgia to be closer to Mark’s family. Now, he and his daughter Lauren are now working with the Atlanta chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association to produce a book of photography to raise awareness about — and to put human faces to — cognitive disorders like Alzheimer’s. 

“I know I have Alzheimer’s. But from my point of view: I can’t kick it, but I can certainly keep it at bay by doing all the things I’m doing,” Mark said. “Like the coffee table book, which I think is very important to shine a light on Alzheimer’s with the career that I’ve had.” 

Mark and Pam joined Deborah Kan to discuss living with Alzheimer’s, his career, and his current photography project. Read some of the conversation or watch the full live talk below. 

Being Patient: Tell us how you got diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. What were some of the early signs?

Mark Sennet: Pam and my daughter [when we were] in Los Angeles noticed that I was forgetting my keys, wallet, where the car was, and I didn’t notice it. We moved from LA to here, and about two weeks before my daughter’s wedding in LA, I had a grand mal seizure. 

They took me to the hospital, and when I came out of ICU, wherever I came out of, they told me. They didn’t tell me exactly that I had Alzheimer’s or any other thing, and my main concern was getting into my daughter’s wedding, and so I was able to do that and fly there.  

At the same time, my sisters and everybody there told me I wasn’t doing well, and I thought I was doing okay. It was an interesting transition for me when I got home here because we moved from LA to Atlanta to be with our daughter. 

I went to see some neurologists at Emory, and they were discussing my diagnosis, which positively came up to Alzheimer’s. I didn’t really realize what I had. From my point of view, I wasn’t sick [and] I felt pretty much the same, but I was having problems [with] balance [and] shuffling with my feet. I fell a few times. 

I didn’t realize I had Alzheimer’s. I wasn’t really in denial, but I couldn’t accept it because I felt pretty much the same. As time went on, I went to PT classes for about a year, and they suggested that I go to the gym, do a lot of walking, [and] watch my diet. All those things which I did, I started to get better, with not shuffling and walking, and feeling fairly normal. 

“It’s important to get everybody involved because
there’s such a stigma on Alzheimer’s. I feel that
through my career, I would be able to introduce
the whole world to my situation.”

Then my daughter and Pam suggested, because my daughter knew the person who was running the Atlanta [Alzheimer’s Association chapter], that I should go [and] try doing a photography book, a coffee table book on all the people that I had photographed. 

I thought, “Well, this would be great,” but it was in two parts. It was my early life as a photojournalist, and then I would start the second part of the book, which we’ve done. [We have] not finished it, but we’ve been working on some important people in Atlanta that have had the same sort of situation. 

We photographed some really cool people. Now, what I’m working on is outside of Atlanta and going to Washington, DC, where I have a lot of connections, and back to Los Angeles. [That] is important because I want some of the celebrities that I’d photographed through the years to be in the second part of the book so that there was a relationship between when I was well and here I am today with Alzheimer’s. It’s important to get everybody involved because there’s such a stigma on Alzheimer’s. I feel that through my career, I would be able to introduce the whole world to my situation.

Being Patient: Pam, what were some of the early signs of Alzheimer’s with Mark that you noticed?

Pam Sennet: Since 2016, my daughter and I noticed changes. 

Being Patient: Mark wasn’t diagnosed until 2022, is that right?

Pam Sennet: Yes, quite a while. Mark was suffering from depression, and I think that was a real precursor to what was happening when we finally got the diagnosis. He was on different medications for depression, so we were thinking maybe some of the forgetfulness, losing his phone, his keys, was perhaps due to the medications he was on— not being able to understand a phone bill, certain things. 

He was under the care of psychiatrists for depression, so he was having care, but that wasn’t picked up. Alzheimer’s was never mentioned at the time. When he did have a grand mal seizure in 2022, and he went to the hospital, they did a slew of tests— that’s when we got the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s with mixed vascular dementia.

Being Patient: What types of tests did they use? How did they conclude that it was indeed Alzheimer’s disease?

Pam Sennet: Good question. Mark had MRIs [and] CAT scans, and that is definitely where the vascular dementia was diagnosed. Then, our neurologist said that he felt that because of Mark’s symptoms, he was having tremors, shuffling, [and] there was a lot happening that he also felt was a mixed Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia. 

“When he did have a grand mal seizure in
2022, and he went to the hospital, they did a
slew of tests— that’s when we got the diagnosis of
Alzheimer’s with mixed vascular dementia.”

Being Patient: Mark, do you have dementia in your family?

Mark Sennet: We think so. My mother died not that long ago, and she was suffering from dementia before she passed. I never thought she had it before. She drove me crazy for years, but I didn’t think that was dementia. That was just her. I didn’t notice it. She was getting far gone before she died. 

Pam Sennet: [For] about five years, she was having aphasia and difficulty with her speech, and her doctor gave her the diagnosis of dementia. 

The Relationship Between Epilepsy, Cognitive Decline, and Dementia

Being Patient: Depression is a huge risk factor for dementia. Were you aware of those risks?

Mark Sennet: I didn’t feel I was that depressed. Pam and my daughter did, so I wasn’t aware of it, and still not aware of it in the sense that I just didn’t feel that depressed. There was a lot on my plate that I was trying to navigate, and I just thought that was work. 

Pam Sennet: There were a lot of stressors during that time, so there were a lot of outside factors. But I do feel that the depression was definitely a precursor — absolutely. 

Is It Dementia or Depression? Or Both?

Being Patient: Tell us about your career, Mark. I’m assuming you weren’t like the paparazzi. You weren’t chasing celebrities. It was more planned, curated shoots— is that right?

Mark Sennet: I would never be a paparazzi. I was a Time-Life photojournalist for 30 years, and I was responsible. I probably shot 100 covers for the magazine. Life Magazine wasn’t covering so much, but it was the zeitgeist that was going on in the country. 

I would get assigned to different people, like the Ali shot, which was, I think, one of my best ones. Ali was such an amazing talent, you know. This was before the Joe Frazier fight. The dog’s name was Frazier. We did a lot of shoots over the years. One that I remember, besides this one, was he had Parkinson’s, and I did a number of [shots] at his home in LA, and I picked up a lot from him. 

He was having a lot of problems just putting things down [and] picking them up. He couldn’t concentrate on everything, and I knew it had nothing to do with me but where he was in his life. I photographed him at home, but it took a long time to get him into situations that I wanted, like eating his breakfast in his mansion, eating cornflakes, and things that he wanted to do with his wife. 

I got him down to his gym boxing again. I wouldn’t say he was a pal, but I was always accepted by Muhammad. There are some wonderful photographs that aren’t here of him in his Muslim life at [the mosque]. Not to make a long story short, but he was one of my favorite people. I got to photograph [him] when he was well and [when] he was sick.

Being Patient: Here’s an amazing shot of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Can you tell us the story behind that?

Mark Sennet: This is the first day that Arnold became an American citizen. I was there that day for Time Magazine, and I had one or two other sessions with him, but he’s such an amazing personality. When I suggested this photograph, he was all for it. A lot of these celebrities— their lives were bigger than life. 

Being Patient: You photographed both Ronald Reagan and Robin Williams. Robin Williams, after his death, it came out that he had Lewy Body Dementia, and Ronald Reagan had Alzheimer’s. Is part of the goal of your book to showcase that, like some of the celebrities you’ve photographed over the years, that dementia can impact anybody?

Mark Sennet: I’ll tell you a quick story. I used to travel with President Reagan. When he was running for president, he was sharp, as we all know. He was with it. When he was running for governor, when he was running for president, he was a cool guy. He was masterful [and]  presidential.

I was with his people in his office in LA, and on a different day, we were doing a movie with him on one of his people that kind of got him to be president. President Reagan came in because he was going to play golf that day, and we were talking about this other man called Lee Atwater. Reagan came into the room and forgot who Lee was. 

He got himself together, where he focused on a photograph of him and Gorbachev. Then, six months later, he wrote the letter. I knew it when we were in the room. Then we took our pictures with President Reagan, and we all felt sick because he couldn’t focus well on that. It was pretty evident. 

This photograph of him and Nancy was before that, and they were a great couple. I knew Nancy as time went on. We were doing other movies with her because I was a producer at that point, and she was pretty tough, I gotta say. But she always gave me an open door and her handlers from DC because President Reagan hadn’t died yet. 

What an experience to travel with the Reagans and get to know up close who they were. There was no Ronald Reagan without Nancy Reagan. I got to witness that up close and personal. I enjoyed every minute of that because what a man. 

It was interesting, though, because I was at HBO then, and we had got Nancy Reagan’s rights. I think he had died at that point, and I couldn’t find a writer. We all couldn’t because everybody hated Reagan in 2003, and it’s not till today that they admire what an important president he was. 

Being Patient: Did you ever have a conversation after the fact with Nancy Reagan about the Alzheimer’s diagnosis? I do feel like we’ve come a long way because today, it doesn’t feel like people hide it as much as they did back then. Was she open about it, and how was she dealing with it?

Mark Sennet: She didn’t. It was more as a couple and what she was doing to protect him. We discussed it because I was there when he first put his letter out. [When] I was at HBO at that point as a producer, she agreed to do his life story with me and our team. 

“A lot of these celebrities— their lives were bigger than life.”

Mrs. Reagan would have called Pam on the phone. We were living in the desert, and she would get on the phone and say, “Where’s Mark?” She wanted to make sure that Alzheimer’s disease was dealt [with] in the right way because she didn’t have approval on the script, but she kind of did. 

When we got into Alzheimer’s, she was very concerned [about] how we would handle that because she was so protective of her husband. That part of his life was [his] downfall, but she was very happy that President Reagan wrote that letter about Alzheimer’s when he realized that he was diagnosed with that. 

It was pretty evident to her [and] to the people around her, and word had leaked out that we were doing this movie. When I was at HBO, and she got nervous, and because so many of the other broadcast networks were going to try to jump in and stop us. 

“That was a very important part in my life
because I didn’t realize everything about
dementia or Alzheimer’s, but she was helpful
to me in bringing that forward in
the script, if that makes sense.”

She decided at the end, because we were dealing a lot with the second part of his life and the first part, because he was such a great man, but she didn’t want to make him look like a loser when he got diagnosed. That was a very important part in my life because I didn’t realize everything about dementia or Alzheimer’s, but she was helpful to me in bringing that forward in the script, if that makes sense. 

Being Patient: Alzheimer’s disease presents itself in different ways, but it certainly doesn’t feel like memory is a big issue for you. Of course, short-term and long-term memory are different. Have you noticed any changes with your memory?

Mark Sennet: That’s one thing. Short term is difficult, but I can retrieve it after a minute or two. If we had dinner last week, who we had dinner with, what movie we watched? Pam is so helpful to remind me what we were doing together. 

My long term memory is pretty excellent. I can go all the way back to when I started as a photographer when I was 21 and recount all those stories. My long term memory is pretty good. My long term memory and my short term memory are pretty good, but I don’t have that every day. 

Because of my physical working out and I just graduated from a PT class, all those movements and the book that we’re doing keeps your brain working, and it keeps you moving. The one most important thing, the support group that I have from Pam and our daughter, was very helpful for me. 

I know I have Alzheimer’s, but I think, from my point of view, I can’t kick it, but I can certainly keep it at bay by doing all the things I’m doing, like the coffee table book, which I think is very important to shine a light on Alzheimer’s with the career that I’ve had. 

Being Patient: From your perspective, Pam, have you noticed any changes in Mark over the years since diagnosis?

Pam Sennet: He’s doing very well, and he’s so compliant with all the doctors recommendations as far as diet, exercise, and everything that he’s doing to keep active and keep his brain active. Mark is a little forgetful at times, a little difficulty following movies sometimes or TV shows. Except for politics— he’s right on.

Being Patient: There’s certainly things that are unforgettable.

Pam Sennet: That’s for sure. Yes, [he] maybe needs some cueing as for what we’re doing today. Sometimes, Mark doesn’t want to eat, so I have to make sure that we have different things that you like, that you can pop into the refrigerator. Nutrition, we need to keep an eye on that. We’re just living day by day and staying as positive as we can. 

Being Patient: Can you give us a teaser for the book? Does it have a title? Tell us about it.

Mark Sennet: We haven’t come up with a title, and we’re still looking for a publisher. The joke I always make is “Here today, but not sure about tomorrow.” I’m not sure if that resonates with the publishers. The book is pretty interesting in the sense that it covers the Alzheimer’s situation. 

Whoever has Alzheimer’s, I think what they’ll gain from this book is the awareness of it, and my life as a photographer, and then my life as a producer. What [people] will come away from this is [that] this man has had a pretty incredible life, and now he’s got this stigma of Alzheimer’s.  

I think it’s my job to make everybody aware that you’re not dead when you get a diagnosis. In fact, you can really move your life forward with this. You need to. You need to do things that are creative. You need to stimulate your brain. You need to have a great partner, like I have with Pam and my daughter. 

“I think it’s my job to make everybody aware that you’re not dead when you get a diagnosis. In fact, you can really move your life forward with this.”

It’s not the end of the world. You’re not dying and you should look at your life as you had it before. In fact, [I’m] getting the celebrities that I used to photograph. We’re getting very close to Lionel Richie, who I used to do many sessions with, and we’ve been in touch with him and get his perspective on Alzheimer’s, and how he feels about it. Then you cut back to Alzheimer patients today. 

It’s a wonderful journey, and I know it will help other people, but it’s also helping me. Just keep going. I mean, you don’t just shut your brain down because you have this diagnosis. In fact, you should move forward with it.

Katy Koop is a writer and theater artist based in Raleigh, NC.