DRUGS
Nowadays drugs are a major and serious
problem for the society. Many people and especially the younger ones, start to
use drugs just for having fun and being part of the group’s activities.
The first impression is that everything
seams beautiful. The person meets new experiences, but as the time passes, and
as the abuse is becoming stronger, all those unfamiliar experiences are
becoming a nightmare to the life of drug users.
At first instance, the drugs are
transferring the users, to a world considered as utopia. Never the less this
world is becoming an obsession whereby the person cannot resist. At this point
the life style the health and also the life of the relatives of those persons
are affected in the worst way.
This issue is not concerning only the media and the law. Many artists have considered and prepare work in regard to drugs.
Rochkind David
Mexico Drug War
Rochkind David, is a photographer who was in
Mexico in order to capture the famous drug war. The photographer recognized the problem of
drugs and he captured the nature of that problem.
The only thing that matters: Here, a woman shoots heroin in front of her lover and a baby they are supposed to be caring for.
Through the above image, we can see and realize that the life of a drug user, affects their loving relatives, and thus their relations and general the lifestyle of the family is at risk.
Destitution: Series of
poignant images of Mexico's devastating drug culture; here, a young girl
walks by a caravan of police vehicles during a security sweep looking
for criminals and drug dealers.
A drug user as well as a drug dealer could be anyone: Your son, your husband, your uncle, your mother your wife.
Anyone may be seduce in the world of drugs. Nevertheless, each and everyone has their own reasons; some for fun others to forget about the reality and thus their problems and others, for survival. The job o a drug dealer is an easy way to get money and in some situations people are prepared to do it in order to provide the necessary to their family.
Belly of the beast: Ciudad Juraez is at the center of Mexico's violence,
with more than 5,000 drug related murders over the past two years.
President Felipe Calderon has sent thousands of soldiers to the city to
try to stem the violence, though after a short decrease in murders the
violence blossomed once again. Here, soldiers search young men for
drugs, weapons or signs of drug use.
Whatever the reason is for being a drug dealer or a user, drugs are the reason of many deaths and therefore this crime has to stop.
Behind bars: A man arrested for drug possession stands in his jail cell in a small prison high in the hills of Nogales, Sonora
Roman Sakovich
Drugs Before and After
Through the next images, the photographer, Roman Sakovich, shows how drugs are affecting the physical and psychological health of a drug user. His idea,for me, is very efficient and creative. By choosing to show the models in that way is an efficient way to realize that the same person's appearance is dramatically affected by drugs.
My Proposal
I am fascinated with the idea of capturing the life of
people. The reason is because I have the chance to capture a memory, an emotion
and more generally, the reality.
People’s life, may be shown
through series of photographs and
therefore the viewers are having the chance to meet them or just to become
familiar with the subject of the images and further to the people shown.
Therefore, it could be said that one impact that photographs have, is the
emotional connection between the viewer and the subject. Accordingly, the photographer is having the
chance to choose and to show certain aspects of life or emotions of the people.
However this is considered to be quite difficult as each person is receiving or
realizing on their own way the emotions. Each and everyone is different and in
my opinion there is no a specific way that a person could manage to transfer
their thoughts and emotions in the exact way that they are feeling them. Sure, the emotions could be explained and
named, however feeling them and transferring them is a different thing. Even
though, a person could show a story and to transfer an idea or a matter and
leave the others to understand them as they want. The success through that
process would be to affect the viewer in the way you indented.
Base to the above, my idea is not to show emotions but
to show through the life of an individual a general problem of society. Everyone knows that drugs are bad and that
the addicted persons and their relatives are suffering because of them. Day
after day, this problem grows and more are suffering and are destroying their
life. This general issue is recognized
by everyone, however people not related in real life with drugs, do not know in
fact how a person could become involved and at the end a user. Moreover, it is
a fact that people do not realize how easy a person could become addicted and
how much their life is affected.
Through a series of images however people may have the
chance to understand more easily the life of a drug user and more generally to
see their story. Thus, my idea is to
produce a series of photos which will show a possible story of how a person may
become a drug user. With the help of a
male model, I am planning to show step by step the period which he became
familiar with drugs and eventually user.
Even if I will capture the photos in respect to the story I am not sure
that I could develop that through the final photos and therefore the final
images would be the best (for me) that I have captured base to his life.
However I am planning to show through my blog the story of him and therefore to
prove that my final images were depended
to the story.
MY IDEA
My idea is to produce a series of photos which will show a possible story of how a person may become a drug user. With the help of a male model, I am planning to show how the life of a person and in particular, the life of a 22 year old university student.
Through my research and generally from my knowledge on how a drug user is living. I would like to show how i realize his life and how a person is killing himself by his actions.
My Work
As i was thinking of the concept of my idea and how i could manage to show through a series of photos the different aspects of a drug user's life. While i was preparing i consider the fact that drug users are closer to death as they, in some way, challenge him and invite him to come.
In regard to this idea i decided to show how near the death, as a figure, is in the life of a drug user and also the bad habits that are challenging the death to come.
So i started to preparing to capture the first concept where the drug user is not heavily user but still, he started to invite the death, day after day.
Here the two friend are enjoying their day. Nevertheless, as they have been using some drugs, the death, became part of the picture and even if he is not wanted the persons acts invited him but still, as the person is not a heavily user the death is just a part to the picture and he is ready to receive his invitation by the drug user.
The next concept is quite the same however, as the time passes and the using is becoming more often, and thus the user gave the invitation to death to come closer to him.
At this point, the user became addicted to drugs and now his life has changed. As he is a student and he lost his job he has no money as he is spending them on getting drugs.
For now on the life of the user is at the worst stage. He completely lost himself and the drugs are controlling his life. the death is now waiting. Thus, i choose to have the figure of death closer to the user in order to show that every minute is dangerous.
At this point i consider the fact that, death is not the absolute result. Thus, i wanted to show that a user is able to free himself for his addiction. In order to show it, i had to use the studio as i wanted, with the help of Photoshop to prepare a subject with deeper meaning. The meaning of freedom and of redemption. The final result, is pictures where the user appear to be a sort of angel asking for help and getting out of his life the death.
In order to create a more dramatic and meaningful images i worked on Photoshop for the concept of the redemption and generally to the appearance of the death where i added a skeleton face where it was possible.
