All images by Chris Anande. Captions are all his, as well.
If you’ve been using the excuse that you’re not making powerful shiznit because you’re not a full-time photographer, take a lesson from this guy.
Chris Arnade is 46, (Twitter @chris_arnade) lives in New York, and is a banker by day. But it’s not his ability to count money that’s gotten him a lot of press lately…it’s his hobby, which is photographing the faces of drug addicts (mostly prostitutes) in the Bronx. And they are real and very simple and touching and hard. And it’s not his day job. It’s just what he does to unwind.
Flip through some of my favorite shots of Chris’s on the image tabs above and see what he does in his spare time. The extended captions below the images are as simple, yet priceless, as the images.
I am not a journalist, I don’t verify, just listen.
Its very easy ito simply run with your crowd, to not explore the amazing diversity and perspectives that are offered. Its also very easy to ignore others. By not looking, by not talking to them, we can often fall into constructing our own narrative that affirms our limited world view. What I am hoping to do, by allowing my subjects to share their dreams and burdens with the viewer and by photographing them with respect, is to show that everyone, regardless of their station in life, is as valid as anyone else.
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via his Flickr set, Faces of Addiction:
powerful series. made me think twice about complaining about my “problems.” overall, I don’t think I’d have the balls to cover something so tragic. maybe one day.
Funny, I remember reading this : “1. Declare yourself a photographer. That’s what you ARE in life. You’re not a student, not a finance-guy-slash-part-time-photographer, not a part time anything.”
😉
Ya I remember reading the same thing. So what are you trying to say Chase?
hmmm. not sure about the confusion on this point. I thought i was being clear that…
a. if you want to be a PROFESSIONAL photographer, then you’d best call yourself a photographer and go for it; and
b. if you want to be a photographer with a day job, then totally cool – you can stlll have tons of impact like Chris here…
Maybe he’s a finance guy AND a photographer. DUH! Why does money have to be the validation of photographers?
I love raw street photography at its core – Amazing stuff, although I am terrible at street photography and I find it most inspiring to the more controlled stuff I do. thanks for the links!
Thanks for posting these, Chase. As an addiction counselor/therapist myself (day job for 12 years) and a street photographer at heart, I’ve had similar encounters…and they are both rewarding and distrubing…this photographer deserves great praise for being willing to approach, connect with, and document this suffering and validating the humanity that is ALWAYS there…no matter how tragic and terrible the circumstances. Wow…I love the way he asks THEM how they want to be described…