Documentary images help needed - Drug abuse ?

[Natalie_B]

I have a competition next week entitled "Documentary" and I am allowed 2 entries but each entry is one photo only ! Now, I want touse these 2 pictures to sell a strory or highlight a problem, and I thought of using my first entry to highlight the problem of drug abuse in the UK.

First thought was an upturned bottle of pills to show an overdoe of prescription drugs which is quite easy to stage, but then I thought about staging a Class A drug scene as that might be more hard hitting (but of course without the actual drugs) !
Has anyone ever attempted such a pictue ?

I have an idea of what equipment i need (syringe i use to fill up my ink cartridges ) but it feels a bit wrong getting out tin foil and spoons

Any help or advice for such an image and how to light it would be very much appreciated.

Thanks guys

 

[Messiah Khan]

But wouldn't it then be a still life and not documentary? You could always go out on the street and talk to some homeless people and ask if you can take some pics in exhange for some money/food. You might even get real drug shots then.

 

[purpleclouds]

Get yourself some talc, a credit card and a rolled up £20! Just don't breathe in

 

[Natalie_B]

But wouldn't it then be a still life and not documentary? You could always go out on the street and talk to some homeless people and ask if you can take some pics in exhange for some money/food. You might even get real drug shots then.

Yes i suppose that would turn it into a still life
I dont think i am brave enough to walk the streets for this type of shot though :shake:

Get yourself some talc, a credit card and a rolled up £20! Just don't breathe in

hmm, thats an idea ......

 

[squizza]

All I will say to this is that I am now in my third year of my Photography degree, and if theres one thing I've learnt through my lecturers, is that you should avoid being obvious. Why not photograph someone with a problem, but on first inspection you cant tell what it is, this makes the viewer look more. Otherwise, if its obvious, they look, and move on.

 

[BertRoot]

I won a comp with the subject of filth with this one.

I am diabetic though so had some old syringes lying around which made it easy.

 

[Dave450]

I won a comp with the subject of filth with this one.

I am diabetic though so had some old syringes lying around which made it easy.

VERY powerful image. Good work!

 

[Natalie_B]

what did you use for the blood ?

 

[BertRoot]

Erm blood. The joy of being diabetic means I also have lancets that don't damage your finger too much and you drip like a tap. It was mixed with a little lager that I used to give the syringe contents a browner look which didn't matter anyway once I had desaturated the image to the point it is at.

 

[Arkady]

Missed this one - if you stage it then it's not 'Documentary' but 'Editorial' - for it to be classed as documentary, you have to photograph an actual scene with real protagonists, not friends or actors...
If you were my student, that'd be a 'fail' regardless of the standard of the photography...