Biography:
Matt Slaby (b. 1979) is a photographer based in Denver, Colorado. Before turning his attention to photography, he traveled the western United States as a wildland firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service Hotshots also working winters as an EMT...
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Diptych Set #1
R. Joana. 31. After being diagnosed with lymphoma, Joana became addicted to prescription pain killers, slowly gravitating towards heroin in order to quell her physical dependence on opiates.
L. The car where Joana and her boyfriend live under the interstate that cuts through the middle of Denver.
Diptych Set #2
R. Alan. 56 years-old. Injection drug user for 41 years. Became significantly addicted to heroin six years ago.
L. The bridge under which Alan overdosed on heroin.
Diptych Set #3
R. Nick. 32 years-old. Active injection drug user for six years. Hepatitis C positive.
L. The bridge under which Nick overdosed on heroin.
Diptych Set #4
R. Lynn. 42. Injection drug user for 25 years. Lynn's life is marked by traumatic events, including having her face smashed in with a cooking pan by her ex-husband. She regularly injects meth and heroin to cope with a regimen of health problems, including physical dependence on the drugs themselves.
L. The camper where Lynn overdosed on heroin in 2010.
Diptych Set #5
R. Zach. 43 years old. Hepatitus C positive. Zach, a writer by trade, has been injecting heroin for more than 28 years since he was a teenager.
L. The view from a stairwell in downtown Denver where Zach overdosed on heroin.
Diptych Set #6
R. Derek. 24 years-old. Recovering injection heroin user.
L. A reflection in a puddle marking the exact spot in a city park where Derek overdosed on heroin while locked in a portable toilet.
Diptych Set #8
R. Sean. 49 years-old. Injection heroin user. Hepatitis C and HIV positive.
L. The floor in Sean's living room where paramedics moved him after a heroin overdose. The portrait on the wall is of Sean's mother, painted when he was 13.
Diptych Set #9
R. Vernon. 38 years-old. Injection heroin user for one year.
L. The stairwell in an upscale Denver condominium where Vernon overdosed on heroin.
Diptych Set #10
R. Andrew. 28 years-old. Recovering injection drug user who now employed as a drug policy and outreach worker at the same sober living facility that helped him transition from life on the street.
L. The floor on which Val, one of Andrew's closest friends, overdosed and died in November of 2009.
One of the fundamental problems faced by healthcare advocates working with injection drug users is a generalized, public perception that the issue is isolated to people and places outside of the normal social sphere. Generally speaking, our tendency is to dissociate our ordinary experiences --the people we know and the places we go --from things that we consider dangerous, dark, or forbidden.
In the arena of injection drug use, the consequence of this mode of thinking has been historically devastating. Instead of crafting public policy that works to minimize the harm caused by addiction, our trajectory tends towards amplifying consequences for anyone that wanders outside of the wire and into these foreign spaces. Rather than treating addiction as a disease, we treat it as something that is volitional and deserving of its consequences. Accordingly, our policies view the contraction of bloodborne pathogens and the risk of overdose as deterrents to the act of injecting drugs.
These “consequences,” of course, have little impact on rates of addiction; they do, however, all but ensure the continued spread of HIV and hepatitis C. Moreover, possession and distribution of Naloxone, a drug that counters the effects of otherwise fatal opiate overdoses, remains criminal in many areas throughout the world.
This body of work is an attempt to combat the notion that addiction exists elsewhere. This series pairs portraits of active and recovering injection drug users with places significant to their stories, creating diptych sets that illustrate the issue as something that is neither foreign nor deserving of moral stigma. In short, this work attempts to showcase the issue in normative terms: these are people we know and places we go.
These images will be used by healthcare workers to help advocate for reform of laws restricting or banning clean needle exchange and disposal. They will further be used to educate the public on issues related to Naloxone decriminalization, and for a greater societal understanding of the broad, non-discriminating sweep of addiction.
