Under
the Influence: Artist Statement
Being
a fine arts photography major, I was a little unsure about having to make a
documentary. I was trying to think of
something that would be visually appealing because that is how my brain works
when photographing. I realized though,
that pretty pictures isn’t what a documentary is for. A documentary is for exploring truths and
answering questions. So I tried to think
of a question that I often ask myself. I
struggled for a little while, but one question that I do consider a lot is why
and how American culture got so saturated by drug use. It might sound like a ridiculous question
coming from someone my age (my generation are seen as a little crazy) but
considering the fact that I have never tried, or even really been interested in
trying drugs, I was curious. I never
really saw the appeal that my peers throughout high school and college so far
have found in drugs. On top of that,
following this year’s election, Washington and Colorado legalized marijuana at
the State Government level. The even
better question that I was wondering was if all of these people I knew who were
using drugs were going end up crazy, broke drug addicts, living in their
parents basements, and what that meant for my future self and family. So I set out to find (hopefully) and
document those around me who are or were using drugs and are successful. The definition of successful for my purposes
was similar to that of society in general; someone who held a regular job, who
maybe went to school or paid rent, someone who had a family or a potential
dream, who didn’t spend all of their time doing drugs and sleeping. I did in fact find these people. The majority of the people I found mainly
smoked pot, but they also did occasionally use other drugs, and I was able to,
through some lucky connections, find a grown adult who was willing to tell his
story – in which he supports and even accredits his success in the realm of
theater sound design to his past use of coke.
My roommates and I laughed listening back to his interview the first
time – this man’s interview sold cocaine like it was an infomercial, and we
were nearly convinced that coke was a good idea by the end. (No, we weren’t actually planning on going out and
buying drugs, he just spoke so highly of the drug that it was funny.) Immersing
myself in this world in itself was an experience. It’s something completely foreign to me, (I
know, what kind of 20 year old are you, most people my age are probably
thinking,) but in all seriousness it was fascinating to me. I ended up with tons of audio interview that
I had to cut about 40+ minutes from. I
had to shoot some extra footage to complete the documentary the way I wanted it
to. I feel that in the end, I succeeded
in what I wanted to do and I am very happy with it. I personally don’t think that I will ever
need drugs to get me through, but it was a good learning experience to try and
understand these people and their stories and why the do what they do. Though unfortunately not all drug users are like
the ones I interviewed, I think that my future may not be AS screwed as I had
previously thought it because of my generations rampant drug use. And in the end, if you think about it, the
generation from the 60’s that raised most of us did the same things in the past
– and I think most of us turned out okay.
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