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Talkingdrum β Heroin Addict
Published: 2008-06-18 19:44:37 +0000 UTC; Views: 6083; Favourites: 74; Downloads: 824
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Description
I met this guy through a friend. He has great bone structure but he's in a bad way through Heroin addiction. I set up one light and the result is not posed in anyway, it's just as it happened.Related content
Comments: 83
That would all depend on what website you were referring to?
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oh jesus, this hits relatively close to home. Amazing shot man- this is strangely beautiful
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motiou you searched HEROIN to get this so dont bitch bout no Mature filter. u triggerin youself. Love the pic talkin drum u got the moment after the whole ritual mission.
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just drive to the hood and u dont even have to kno anyone. brothas fly u down and have drive thru pharmacy. Chicago had h epidmic goin on now wit young people
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yea nymf u got it just rite. I wasted so much doin this shit. Then when u sick you just wanna do it to make urself fell ok. After 5 years of use I got clean for 6 months just wit subboxin I got o street but relapsed recently. Its easier to her H when urpure not 21 than alcohol. where u guys from?
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I live in London, Pete in Cambridge. Sorry to hear about your relapse. I've known quite a number of people get clean and then relapse after a certain amount of time; must always be really hard to stay off.
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This is perfect. THAT is the look, you captured it perfectly.
I am 2 and a half months clean, and that's really what keeps me going-- the fear that one day I'll fall back to being helpless again. It's a hopeless, utter loss of control. The drug makes you want it, but at the same time you want to stay away. The cravings catch up to you yet again, you fall back, and you hate yourself for it. It makes you not care about anyone else, or yourself. It eats you alive...money, relationships, sanity, self-esteem.
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Thank you so much for your comment. I truly wish you the best in staying clean.
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Im 3 years clean.i lost 6 years of my life from that shit.got no vains in my hands or feet.i never finished any program.i bought some subutex from the streets and got clean by myself.that bitch can bring a giant to his knees.Im pretty sure his facial bones are like that from long use of H.Shooting H is like a fetish to many people.But the price is very-very high..
i gotta say..that needle looks really thick compared to what i was using.
excellent capture.i totally can relate to this mans expression.You captured a junkies best moment.The moments just before the shoot.Then he will feel warmth.Then nothing and he will again start thinking where the fuck he will find his next dose.
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I'll be two years clean in a month and a half -- I felt compelled to comment bc i relate to having no veins in my hands and feet. I'm in so much pain today from blowing out veins and -in comparison to most addicts- I was a very, very careful, smart and gentle with my veins. The fact that my arms were so dead that I had to GO to hands/feet (something no one should ever ever do) is the most pathetic act I did in my desperation. The pain of shit circulation and god forbid ever needing a real IV in a hospital - is something I wish I'd even known a little bit more about when I was IN the addiction. I'm sure it wouldnt have stopped much, but when i started to get ready to clean up, I might have surrendered to getting clean sooner had I known better what those last few months of murdering my hands/feet would do to me.
I hope that, while you wrote this a year and a half ago, that you're still doing well. I'm hardly on dA these days, so even if you ARE and I miss you reply or if you never get this here, I still wish you well and applaud you getting out and especially for managing to clean up on your own.
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im still clean since i posted the initial comment.Hopefully this xmas i will celebrate 5 years.i consider myself someone who will have to be on alert the rest of my life.It became much easier for me when i found a soulmate to be there for me whenever i feel vulnerable.thank you for your kind words and bravo to you too for escaping what one in 30 people manage to escape.
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I'm in the same place. Β Coming up on three years in less than a month <33 Β Congratulations to you!! <33
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I have seen and felt the anticipation in this man's eyes many times before. I believe this picture is one of few that accurately demonstrate the adoration that we, as heroin addicts, feel for diacetylmorphine.
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Thank you for your honesty and taking the time to comment.
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I like it, before I read the image title and your description I thought it was a "mad scientist" type picture. Great work ^^
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why is there no mature content filter on this.
....this triggered the FUCK out of me.
i'm only 26 days clean.
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Would a mature filter make a difference?
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yes .. i wouldn't have opened it.
or rather i wouldn't been prepared.
while i saw the title, there are many things he titled similarly that i can just RELATE to and deel understood by; but it's not an *actual* real life action of doing it.
many time that title is just someone in make up strung out connecting to me or a photojournalistic piece of what it leads you too .. or sometimes a FAKE representation of the action.
the light and beauty in his eyes at the excitement of his release was what was sooo triggering and made me crave. because what was in the rig was real!
if i had the choice of opening it instead of seeing it right away i wouldn't been safer
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I'm sorry but the clue is in the title, it really could not have been clearer. You don't want to see then don't look.
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as i said, sometimes there are photos here that i can relate to with a similar title.
ones that speak to me without being graphic or the actual thing... something that i can look at and say, this speaks to me and it's a place i don't want to be. however, i never in my wildest dreams imagined that dA would ALLOW the actual thing, so i felt as though i was 'safe'. that i would see an artist depiction of the horrors of this -- something that, in my early sobriety, would remind me why i don't want to return. ....a staged representation of a life i don't want to return to.
now, if the title were "a picture of someone really shooting heroin" ...yeah, probably NOT going to look. and, at the same time, someone could take a picture of me just sitting here and title it "heroin addict" and it would be just as true.
a title alone doesn't tell me what i'm about to see. think about this.
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I cannot believe that you would find a "mock up" of a heroin addict more of a reminder of a life you DON'T want to return to than the real thing. A "mock up" would look sanitized and could not possibly have the impact of the REAL thing. It's only because it's the REAL thing that you see the full horror of he situation. Having photographs of people pretending to shoot up.......now that should be banned. It's quite possible that without the reality young people could look at a mock up and think "hey, that guy looks cool" but they're sure as hell NOT going to think that looking at the REAL thing.
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sadly, you're mistaken.
because i have seen the misery in a model's eyes in a well done set that was haunting and chilling;
it depicted to me what i couldn't see in my own actions.
death.
and it spoke to me. (not a single case, more than once) and i wanted to fight to stop.
since, it reminds me the horror i'd went through.
i'm finished with this discussion. i'm an addict; you are not.
do not tell me what i feel and what i do not feel.
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And this doesn't remind you of the horror you've been through?
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yes and no. it reminds me of the actions, but not the horror.
i see the glow of the anticipation in his eyes. the studying of what is in that syringe that's about to heal him.
others see the darkness, the ominous feel of the photo, a gaunt man.
and addict who KNOWS that position all too well, who KNOWS what's going through his head, who KNOWS the relief he's visualizing in that rig;
that's all that stands out in this to someone who has felt all of those things and recalls them so vividly.
it almost instills jealousy that he got relief after that snapshot and i get nothing.
but, again, that's because i'm and addict; you're not. it's inevitable we will see this image through completely differently lenses.
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Then dont go on deviantart looking up heroin/heroine needles/shooting up. You can control your OWN actions.
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omgawd, this was forever ago.
leave a dead subject alone.
i looked UP nothing.
it was a goddamn DD. butt out of what you don't know.
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I just came across the work, I have my opinions and I will speak them.
You dont NOT search something like that---just sayin!
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dude i was an addict for 6 years and im telling you.You are an idiot also..for crying out loud!you typed heroin and you are complaining cause a man took a very artistic and true image.If its too much for you then maybe you should quit smack and try looking at the same pic again clean.Then you will feel a winner.
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i am clean.
thanks.
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I admire you for doing this. It really has been talked about in a negative way in some places but I feel that as you are showing reality, why is it so wrong? A controversial image that makes others talk ... surely thats a good thing? Our work should create a stir now and again.
Incredible use of light by the way.
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Thank you for your support. If the negativity you talk about is what I think your referring to I believe it has little to do with these photographs and more to do with the photographer. I have read that I'm exploiting this gentleman, that he is a vulnerable adult and has no idea his images are displayed on the internet which is tremendously presumptuous. Pete has seen the images of himself both here and on my website and although he is not proud of how he looks he does like my photographs, in particular this one. Also through my actions apparently the police might become aware of this man's drug taking. To think that the local police aren't fully aware of this gentleman's habits already when as pointed out he has been an addict all his adult life demonstrates extreme nativity and total misunderstanding of a heroin addicts condition.
Sorry, I shouldn't use your comment to launch a defense against my accuser (one day surely she must get bored and move on) but I have read such nonsense these past couple of days. Some people even suggesting that the image should be accompanied by poetry as the only way to give it legitimacy. I've got half a mind to remove the the statement on the DD about the fact that Pete has to shoot up just to feel normal with some crass limerick and see if they think that has a deeper message.
Photographs like this though do create a dilemma I think. As I mentioned in an earlier comment, when I met Pete he is so photogenic that I immediately thought about the photographic possibilities. When I was photographing him the reality of the situation and the gruesomeness of it (not shown in the photographs I chose to display) really made me question what I was doing and I drove home that night feeling very uneasy about what I had done.
I am reminded of an interview I saw with a photojournalist on television some time ago. He was talking about a situation in Rwanda when he came to a cross roads where bodies had been piled high (now a well known picture). They were the butchered bodies of men women and children (including young babies). The photographer said he was in the process of moving round the pile, his concern was trying to find the best composition when it suddenly struck him how obscene that gesture was. He still came away with an award winning photograph that shocks to the core and opens up peoples minds to man's inhumanity to man when at its basest.
I don't wish to suggest my work is on the level of a great photojournalist, as with most people on DA this is merely my hobby but hopefully I captured something of meaning. I have known many addicts but I have never witnessed someone injecting before. I imagined it to be quite a quick process but in all it took about 45 minutes. The long hunt for a vein that still works, the blood when he finally found one, none of which I have shown. I have photographs that I could have put up purely for shock value but hopefully I've dealt with the subject matter with a certain amount of sensitivity.
I learned an awful lot that night and there's nothing we do that couldn't be done better or differently but I'm proud of this series of images.
I have been informed by DA that I have been reported for every misdemeanor under he sun including content violations, permission rights and others but apart from the photographs receiving mature tags DA has deemed all complaints to be invalid for which I am grateful.
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I just wish to say, no you shouldn't use my comment to launch your defense. I shared my thoughts re the work on your thread.
Jan.
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I think you did a little more than share your thoughts on the work on my thread (not sure I understand exactly what that means). The bulk of your comment refers to comments made on my work in other places. You brought that to this thread, not me.
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Well it was the reason I came to see. I like images that cause a stir, in my books they 'work' by moving a person.
My partner was really disturbed by some images he once viewed and after a rather long ptsd flashback series, he came back to congratulate the photographer as he had made it so 'real'... I guess some should do the same for you too.
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I think your work is absolutely beautiful, and I agree with u... about mentioned above. I am a recovering addict,I now have 5 years clean and maybe not so much sober, but understanding...... would be more apropriate. I understand responsability is the key. my choice was meth. And I can say that for the past 5 years I havent gone back, and dont feel the cravings for it. I had lost everything to it. My intire life..... then i said enough. This photo reminds me of what i saw and felt when i was there in my life and i can say that this photo has helped me stay clean today, and that a BIG thing for even me............... its always easy to go back to it......... its harder to stay away. ONE DAY AT A TIME.
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Thank you so much for your comments on my work and long may you live free of your addictions. I too spent many years fighting an addiction though not heroin and spent time in rehab. I know how drug addictions become your life and a totally self destructive one at that. A life on drugs is really no life and I think if addicts had any inclination of where that first experimentation would take them they would never have started; nobody would want to choose that.
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I'm lost for words to describe how great these images are. Very well done, and congratulations on the DD.
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I may post some more soon.
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I think that would be great. That is an awesome picture. I'm sure it's pretty morbid stuff. Unfortunately, I have a curiosity about such things. I used to do that stuff, so looking at pictures of it is probably pretty bad for me because it might make me want to go out and do it again. Sometimes I like looking at pictures about it...
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Hi there!
you got featured in: [link] 
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Thankyou so much for the feature, it's very much appreciated.
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Sadly I'm not sure there's anything you can do to stop people becoming heroin addicts. Some think they won't become addicts. There will always be some who actively embrace the destructiveness of it. This is an interesting portrait though. His focus on preparing his gear is almost a metaphor.
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This is a very sad photoshoot. I love how this is real and not set up it shows the darkness in his addiction. I wounder how he is doing now.
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