Documenting the Human Experience
“No civilization has found life tolerable without narcotics or stimulants.” -Will Durant The recent death of actor Philip Hoffman has pulled the issue of heroin addiction into the forefront of our collective attention. To look at the photo of Philip…
Ciera walking the streets of K-Town on Chicago’s West Side searching for someone who’s “working.” Don’t do junk! The number one message that Heroin addicts wish for me to pass along is: “Don’t Do Junk!” Don’t think that you can…
Benjamin, October 2013 – I ran into Ben today. He was up to his usual simple life – score, inject, score, inject, score… The junkie life is relatively simple, yet extremely difficult. Blood rolls through syringe’s chamber wall like dark…
This is Shaggy preparing for his next “jab” in an abandoned West Side Chicago home. Shaggy has been injecting Heroin for the past five years, and he’s only 23. On the day we took these photos, Shaggy had received news…
I was reading Nietzsche while sitting under the shade of twisted Empires when it hit me – it hit me like a flash of light cast down from the heavens by the gods themselves. The raw truth flowed from that…
As of 1-27-2014, I have been working on a Heroin addiction photography project here in Chicago for six months. During this time, I have come to know several addicts on a deep and personal level. We’ve built a relationship, and…
My response to a question about photographers who seek dark subjects for shock value and money (I often catch hell for my photos. I was accused of exploiting people just the other day): I can’t speak for anyone else. All…
Junkie, Ciera, Hepatitis Boulevard, Chicago 2013 – Minolta SRT 202, 50mm, Tri-X 1600 Push Ciera is a 22 year old girl from rural Indianan. She washed up onto the concrete shores of Hepatitis Boulevard for the first time about six…