Photoshoot #1 - Mary Jane

I have planned to do the photoshoot for the Mary Jane/Cannabis photoshoot for this coming weekend.

For this shoot I will be using an assistant as I am certain I will need help in photographing smoke as well as getting the compositon correct.

The Drugs - Crystal Meth - Tina

Arguably one of the most dangerous drugs ever discovered. Simply because of its extremley high addictive qualities and how it physically affects the body. The long term effects of crytsal meth on the brain and nervous system have been compared to Parkisons & Alzheimers. Physically it causes skin cell degredation, tooth decay, rotting gums; so much so that when addicts attempt to stop they severly harm themselves with their own bodies without realising. This leads to physical disfiguration.

In just two and a half years this woman appears to have aged 25 years.


Idea -
The idea was to show how dirty and dangerous the drug is.


1st Shot -
In the first shot I will show someone taking the drug through the regular means. Though focusing on the dirty side


2nd Shot -
In the second shot I will show what can happen when a meth addict has to go without for a short time.


For this I was going to show the back of a female covered in brusies and deep scratches.
Long dirty fingernails, natty damaged hair.

The Drugs - Acid - Sid

I will be looking into the effects of LSD Acid in this section. The use of LSD became popular during the 70s because of its phsycadellic qualities and was enjoyed by most as it did not tend to alter your decision making or general personality like other hard drugs can. Acid simply 'enhanced' how you viewed the day.

However everyone has heard to horror stories about jumping out of windows and the like. What most people do not realise is that LSD was not the cause of the people jumping out windows it was that they genuinely did want to jump out of a window.

I have spoken to a few people who have take LSD in the past and each person says 'It is a powerful and amazing drug, when used correctly and sensibly. Its not a party drug like pills its a gateway to your own mind'.

When researching the negative side effects of Acid I found that there where no major ill affects as with other hard drugs. The worst effect I could find was a 'condition' known as flashbacks, where an object or location could trigger a flashback to when you last took LSD bringing back all the same feelings as well.

However because it is such a powerful hallucinogenic bad trips can occur, though these are just manifestations of your own thoughts perceived visually.

I will attempt to show the affects of acid via photography.

For the first photograph I will attempt to show a good trip possibly through the Acid heads eyes showing his friends.

For the second photograph I will either show a bad trip or what I think might be better and more interesting is to show an Acid Flashback.

For example showing the same person during his regular day though being followed by haunting thoughts.

The Drugs - Heroin - Hazel

Again similarly to the other drugs I have chosen im going to go down the route of first time and last time.


My idea was to show the first time sitting in a nice clean house, clean people, clean needles, clean spoon. Focusing on the clean aspect of it all.


1st Composition -
Face on wide-ish angle possibly a 35mm/50mm lens - slight low angle
Relaxing look leaning back head rested on the back of sofa
Small table infront of sofa with the relevant parafinallia. Inc needles, spoon, wrap etc..


2nd Composition -
Gutter, lying down in own vomit (lumpy), dirty needles, flithy spoon, tin foil, burnt crap flithy lighter & hands. Focus on the flithy aspect.
Dead look on face.

The Drugs - MDMA - Mandy

Here I will talk about he classic party drug MDMA or Extacy also known as Mandy. Each year thousands of people take MDMA to enhance the experience of music usually within a club environment.


My idea for this drug was to take the classic cliche photograph of people clubbing showing them having a good time.

Though this may be difficult to portray via black and white, I though of instead of mulitple colours using different levels of extreme contrast.


My idea for the second shot based on how drugs can easily alter your decision making skills. Like the choice to drive home still buzzing on MDMA. Again I realise this may be difficult to produce without colour however I will use the same technique as above.

The Drugs - Cocaine - Charlie

The idea for Cocaine is more shocking but also far more simple. This will be based off excesive cocaine use, somthing we have seen happen to many celebrities over the years.


Idea -
Excesive use


Location - 
Bathroom


1st Compostition -
Smartly dressed man leaning down snorting cocaine from bathroom mirror ledge - before work


2nd Composition -
Looking into the mirror,
Holding rolled up note,
With a deveated septum - This will have to be done via Photoshop


As said above, though the idea is simple I think it quick and easily shows to dangers of excessive cocaine use, in a shocking mannor.

The Drugs - Marijuana - Mary Jane

This section will focus on the drugs themselves and my ideas on how to create and shoot them. The idea as mentioned before is to choose 6 drugs and have 2 photographs for each.


To start with I chose what is possibly one of the most casually used drugs around the world, even being legal in some countries such as Holland & California. Marijuana.


Location -
Car - Many people choose to smoke in their cars as it is a personal location similar to a bedroom.
Bedroom


Background Composition -
Hundreds of joint buts
Grinders
Pile of weed
Fag chips
Roach card
Weed stash case - king Rizlas etc
Rizlas strewn about


Focus Composition -
Face on portrait - 85mm - 120mm - head & shoulders
Someone in background rolling another joint
Red eye, bags under eyes - dramatise slightly
Blowing smoke or smoke ring Toward camera
Natty/braided hair

Preliminary Idea

When thinking about this project and the basis of creating a publicity campaign for a client I though less of the multi million pound corporations and rather on the lesser volunteer & government funded companies such as Oxfam, Talk to Frank etc..

On further research I found I could do something quite interesting and hopefully informative for a similar organisation to Talk to Frank. A drugs warning campaign.

To start with I thought of the personification of drugs and that most drug users have specific human names for them such as Cocaine would be Charlie, Weed is Mary-Jane etc.. My idea was to show what could happen to some through too much drug use by turning that drug into a person, though when looking into further I found that any photographs I would come up with would be very cliché or uninteresting.

This led me away from that idea but keeping the names. However my second thought on researching drugs themselves, their long term effects and how they can alter your decision making skills.

The focus for many of the drugs was the 'first time use' and the 'last time use' effects.

Equipment -
The equipment use will be almost identical throughout. As follows -


Canon 550D DSLR
Canon 17mm - 85mm Lens
Canon 100mm Macro Lens
Canon 430 Ex II Speedlite
Softbox Flash Lighting
Red & Polorized Filters
Tripod