Neil, this is a really thoughtful and powerful essay. I appreciate the way you’ve used photography not as voyeurism, but as a lens to try and understand the layered realities of addiction, the pleasure, the community, the pain, the consequences. So often the discourse gets flattened into either glamour or horror, and you’ve shown how both are true at different points, and how important it is to reckon honestly with that.
Your line that “no drug policy that ignores the enjoyable aspect of drugs can ever be effective” is bang on. Those of us in recovery know that the first hit was often about connection, relief, belonging, even joy, and unless policy and culture offer genuine pathways to transcendence, people will keep looking for it in substances. That’s why recovery communities matter, they can be places of meaning, solidarity and even ecstasy, without the collapse that comes later.
I also loved how you read Nan Goldin’s afterword and Aidan Mark Wilson’s portraits the recognition of community without judgement, but also the resignation that creeps in. You captured that tension with compassion. It’s the same tension recovery advocacy has to work in, holding empathy without ever losing sight of the wreckage drugs bring.
Thank you for writing with such honesty and curiosity. Scotland needs more people willing to look at this crisis with clear eyes, cultural sensitivity and moral seriousness. Please keep going your voice adds something vital to the conversation.
The author that has the best books on this subject is in my opinion Antoine d'Agata. Was nice to read about other photographer covering this topic though.
Thank you, Susanne. It was written in an unusual way: inspiration, abandonment, resurrection, occasional revisiting, before one big final push to get it out in the world.
Great essay Neil tapping into the documentary side of this topic as well. Addiction is devastating and an easy trap for a lot of people. As you mentioned, a lot of those don’t vote and it is not always represented or prioritised on health and social policy. There is so much more to do around meaningful harm reduction but also robust rehabilitation programs, as many people who suffer additions don’t know how to “return to society” anymore…
McIndoe's comment about drug-influenced consent is a good one, and very relevant to the different purposes of these projects. Bolloten is a recovered user himself, and so was accepted by his subjects as "one of them", but still to some extent looking in from the outside. Personally, although I have huge respect for the emotions on all three sides of his photographs (i.e. as viewer, subject or photographer), I couldn't bring myself to buy his books, precisely because I couldn't reconcile those conflicts for myself. It's very difficult subject matter for everyone, not just because of the consent issue, more so from the welfare perspective; and you're absolutely right to bring it up for discussion.
This is really interesting, extending the idea that 'addiction is about connection' to thinking about the community that drug-taking provides, I hadn't thought about it like that. And the link between this, the desire for altered states, desire to escape from suffering/pain, and 'spirituality'. That Mark Lekey video is quite fascinating, I'd never heard of him, or seen any art like this. I find his installation quite disturbing, it's very effective at portraying the sensory overwhelm that people perhaps think they want from either drugs or spirituality but which actually may not be what they really want at all! I've been thinking quite a bit recently about some of this in relation to the revival of psychedelics...
I was really hoping that this comment would continue! Psychedelics have definitely been used to help people out of repetitive thought patterns and addiction is certainly that.
Mmmm, it’s a big topic and not one I’m properly keeping up with. Their use to help people with illness, depression etc is fascinating. It always seems to me that the states they produce have much to teach us. But, we’re barred from those states most of the time for good psychological reasons, and I find the little I pick up about their use for ‘spiritual’ purposes quite weird. It’s like the next thing for uneasy Westerners to spend their money on, now that everyone is focussed on endlessly healing themselves. We can pay our bills, we have warm clothes, many of us have jobs, but we’ve somehow hollowed ourselves out so much culturally that we have no ground to stand on anymore. Always wanting more, better, different. Very human, of course, and what the Buddha taught. But there’s something very weird about it, not least that we use our money to rampage into older communities in other parts of the world that seem exotic to us, and start to appropriate their sacred ways. And then there’s the fact that in these communities, it’s not a fun psychedelic free-for-all for anyone who fancies it, but a carefully guarded, trained for, speciality, reserved for particular people who have a specific role in the community. My opinionated impression.
well done, the way you weave your documentary narrative between photographer discussions. Though you give Larry Clark an easy out. "Let's get high with the cute teens, fuck them, and then turn them into a book." Makes Bruce Gilden's approach Mother Theresa like!
Thanks Mark! I tend to agree with you on Clark, but as is often the case with photographers he was a troubled guy and he got the photos. On Bret Easton Ellis’s podcast he talks about loving W Eugene Smith but always feeling like he was holding something back. Pretty sure he’d be arrested for Teenage Lust now.
Neil, this is a really thoughtful and powerful essay. I appreciate the way you’ve used photography not as voyeurism, but as a lens to try and understand the layered realities of addiction, the pleasure, the community, the pain, the consequences. So often the discourse gets flattened into either glamour or horror, and you’ve shown how both are true at different points, and how important it is to reckon honestly with that.
Your line that “no drug policy that ignores the enjoyable aspect of drugs can ever be effective” is bang on. Those of us in recovery know that the first hit was often about connection, relief, belonging, even joy, and unless policy and culture offer genuine pathways to transcendence, people will keep looking for it in substances. That’s why recovery communities matter, they can be places of meaning, solidarity and even ecstasy, without the collapse that comes later.
I also loved how you read Nan Goldin’s afterword and Aidan Mark Wilson’s portraits the recognition of community without judgement, but also the resignation that creeps in. You captured that tension with compassion. It’s the same tension recovery advocacy has to work in, holding empathy without ever losing sight of the wreckage drugs bring.
Thank you for writing with such honesty and curiosity. Scotland needs more people willing to look at this crisis with clear eyes, cultural sensitivity and moral seriousness. Please keep going your voice adds something vital to the conversation.
Thank you, Annemarie, this means a lot. Keep up the great work and hope to talk more in Glasgow.
Anytime. (hugs)
I’ve not come across Larry Clark. Great to discover an influential photographer from near my home town. Great read Neil :)
Assume you’ve seen Boogie’s work on this subject?
No! Is there a good starting point? I found this v. striking: https://www.dazeddigital.com/photography/article/33000/1/boogie-unflinching-photos-of-brooklyns-gangsters-and-junkies
https://www.collater.al/en/street-photography-boogie-vladimir-milivojevich/
I think this project was how he got famous after he first arrived in NYC
So cool
He has a number of books as well. He is cool. And Serbian of course ;)
Thanks for this Neil. Thought provoking and powerful.
Thanks Terry, much appreciated
The author that has the best books on this subject is in my opinion Antoine d'Agata. Was nice to read about other photographer covering this topic though.
Thanks for the tip.
Excellent article, Neil! Very thoughtful and also thought provoking! Thank you.
Thank you, Susanne. It was written in an unusual way: inspiration, abandonment, resurrection, occasional revisiting, before one big final push to get it out in the world.
I am glad you came back to it and eventually published it.
The image “Nan Goldin, Greer and Robert have n the bed” is kind of an amazing image!! Wow!
It is one that I find extremely compelling too and see that I used it last time I wrote about her! https://neilscott.substack.com/p/nan-goldin
Thanks! I will check this out. It really is an incredible photograph.
Very eye opening read. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you, Manuela!
Great essay Neil tapping into the documentary side of this topic as well. Addiction is devastating and an easy trap for a lot of people. As you mentioned, a lot of those don’t vote and it is not always represented or prioritised on health and social policy. There is so much more to do around meaningful harm reduction but also robust rehabilitation programs, as many people who suffer additions don’t know how to “return to society” anymore…
Thanks Victor! The problem feels like part of a deeper malaise - economic and in terms of meaning.
Have you also seen John Bolloten’s powerful work from Bradford?
https://www.johnbolloten.co.uk/lovestory.html
Ah, no I hadn’t. Thank you for sharing. I always hope that these posts allow me to learn about other work. The one that I wanted to include but couldn’t fit was Graham McIndoe https://nymag.com/news/features/heroin-graham-macindoe-2014-2/
McIndoe's comment about drug-influenced consent is a good one, and very relevant to the different purposes of these projects. Bolloten is a recovered user himself, and so was accepted by his subjects as "one of them", but still to some extent looking in from the outside. Personally, although I have huge respect for the emotions on all three sides of his photographs (i.e. as viewer, subject or photographer), I couldn't bring myself to buy his books, precisely because I couldn't reconcile those conflicts for myself. It's very difficult subject matter for everyone, not just because of the consent issue, more so from the welfare perspective; and you're absolutely right to bring it up for discussion.
Thanks, yes McIndoe makes a good point and it is interesting that his subsequent career is pretty righteous.
This is really interesting, extending the idea that 'addiction is about connection' to thinking about the community that drug-taking provides, I hadn't thought about it like that. And the link between this, the desire for altered states, desire to escape from suffering/pain, and 'spirituality'. That Mark Lekey video is quite fascinating, I'd never heard of him, or seen any art like this. I find his installation quite disturbing, it's very effective at portraying the sensory overwhelm that people perhaps think they want from either drugs or spirituality but which actually may not be what they really want at all! I've been thinking quite a bit recently about some of this in relation to the revival of psychedelics...
I was really hoping that this comment would continue! Psychedelics have definitely been used to help people out of repetitive thought patterns and addiction is certainly that.
Aha, where would you like the comment to have gone?
Just curious about what you think about the revival of psychedelics
Mmmm, it’s a big topic and not one I’m properly keeping up with. Their use to help people with illness, depression etc is fascinating. It always seems to me that the states they produce have much to teach us. But, we’re barred from those states most of the time for good psychological reasons, and I find the little I pick up about their use for ‘spiritual’ purposes quite weird. It’s like the next thing for uneasy Westerners to spend their money on, now that everyone is focussed on endlessly healing themselves. We can pay our bills, we have warm clothes, many of us have jobs, but we’ve somehow hollowed ourselves out so much culturally that we have no ground to stand on anymore. Always wanting more, better, different. Very human, of course, and what the Buddha taught. But there’s something very weird about it, not least that we use our money to rampage into older communities in other parts of the world that seem exotic to us, and start to appropriate their sacred ways. And then there’s the fact that in these communities, it’s not a fun psychedelic free-for-all for anyone who fancies it, but a carefully guarded, trained for, speciality, reserved for particular people who have a specific role in the community. My opinionated impression.
Brilliant! That’s more like it. All very true.
Haha! Glad I delivered!
Incisive stuff, as ever, Neil
This was an interesting read and an incredible set of photos, thank you for putting this together.
🙏
well done, the way you weave your documentary narrative between photographer discussions. Though you give Larry Clark an easy out. "Let's get high with the cute teens, fuck them, and then turn them into a book." Makes Bruce Gilden's approach Mother Theresa like!
Thanks Mark! I tend to agree with you on Clark, but as is often the case with photographers he was a troubled guy and he got the photos. On Bret Easton Ellis’s podcast he talks about loving W Eugene Smith but always feeling like he was holding something back. Pretty sure he’d be arrested for Teenage Lust now.
A depressing statistic …. and a thoughtful read.
Good article Neil for such a bite sized commentary on a subject that could take volumes to address. Well done.
Thanks Aidan, much appreciated.