The neighborhood

A few months ago I posted a series of shots of some neighbors shooting heroin.

Some people got very upset. They said, in essence, (and sometimes in specific), that I was glamorizing heroin use.

Folks can and do say all sorts of stuff about my photos, but "glamorous" is a bit of a stretch, I think.

They agreed. They said I often photograph things that they'd really prefer not to see; that my shots are dark and depressing.

That doesn't sound glamorous to me.

Apparently, the feeling that I am glamorizing these things they find ugly comes from a notion that to photograph something is not to document it but to endorse it. Or, perhaps, it stems from a trait Susan Sontag ascribes to amateur photographers -- the notion that a beautiful photograph is a photograph of something beautiful -- and therefore my photos, which they might find beautiful, must be of subjects I find beautiful.

Sontag's observation is a criticism. Unfortunately digital cameras combined with the internet have led to a horrific deluge of amateur photos -- the digital camera is to photography what the karaoke machine is to music -- and maybe now that amateur aesthetic, confusing decorative work with "art", has redefined the perception of photographs.

God, I hope not.

Anyhow, here are some shots of my neighborhood.

The first thing you'll notice is how glamorous it is.