Thursday 12th April 2012 - Starting Research

I have started research for my FMP, focusing initially on photographers and artists who have created projects on addition.  One of the first sites I found was www.addictionandart.org a website set up in 2010


"This web site continues the Addiction and Art project started by the former Innovators Combating Substance Abuse, a National Program Office of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Also, inspiration for the site comes from the book, Addiction and Art by Patricia B. Santora, Margaret L. Dowell and Jack E. Henningfield (2010, The Johns Hopkins University Press)".


The site states that "Recent scientific findings have proven addiction to be a disease of the brain, affecting both brain and behavior. Addiction Art has the potential to take this message to the masses, most of whom still consider addiction to be a "weakness" or "moral failing" worthy of punishment.  It can convey the human experience of addiction in a way that can help the general public understand addiction as a preventable and treatable chronic disease. Artworks about addiction and recovery can stimulate dialogue, can teach, and at this crucial point in history, can support contemporary scientific research for our world's well-being". 

Another site I found took to me a photojournalist Bradley Clifte who spent 10 years photograping addicts, sex workers and homeless people in the Bronx  http://bradleyeclift.com/addiction/addiction21.html. 


Three pictures im particular got my attention shown below as they portray addiction as involving the family.    I know it as a "family illness", not particularly because it is always genetic, but that the addicted person's family is involved and more often than not, damaged in some way.   The fear in Jessica's face below as she stands in a cabinet whilst her parent use.   I have know much fear in life both as a child and an adult, so I can feel her fear. 




While her parents used her bedroom to shoot up, Jessica placed herself in a china cabinet and waited for the ÒbadnessÓ to pass




Facing the town police dept. below her Hooker Hotel apartment, Jessica using the fading afternoon sun to find a vein.


This image above shows one half of the wall lit by sunlight whilst the other half, where Jessica is using, is shown in darkness.  This may be the intention of hte photographer, or it may just be the time of the day he took it, however to me it shows the darkness associated with addiction.  It's not bright, fun and enjoyable; for my own addiction it was done behind closed doors, where I shut the door and had my own darkness.   The local addiction centre in Burton has it's logo as just that: going from the darkness into the light. 




Kids mimic what they see. Sometimes they see their own parents do drugs and they know every move they make down to the smallest detail.