One of the first Wednesday posts that featured someone else’s work was Chris Arnade’s (are-nah-dee) Faces of Addiction (#63) 8-15-12, that can be seen HERE. I follow Chris’ work on Facebook, and came across a podcast in which he is interviewed about the project. His Facebook page is HERE. And HERE is his flickr photostream. http://www.flickr.com/photos/arnade/sets/72157627894114489/

My perspective is this: some of the most compelling portraits that I have taken are of homeless people. I Endeavour to photograph them in a humanistic way, showing images of personal dignity. I know that some of these folks are alcoholics, and probably some are drug addicts. Chris deals with known addicts, many of whom are prostitutes, in the Hunt’s Point neighborhood in the Bronx. He too, reveals the human side of the subjects, without prejudice.

The interview is by Ellen Morton, on a site called Ellipsis. I was unfamiliar with this site, but the page with the very powerful interview is HERE. Scroll halfway down the page to where it says “Press Play to Listen”. This is 42 minutes long, so beware. The first seven minutes is Ellipsis housekeeping material. As soon as the podcast begins, a status bar appears that displays the number of minutes and seconds elapsed. I grabbed that bar by left clicking on the right end, holding the left mouse button down, and dragging to the right until seven minutes were gone.

This all sounds a bit tedious, but the results are powerful and worth the effort. Warning: the content is blunt and not cheerful. Some language is earthy, where appropriate.

As an aside, my wife and I each have degrees from the University of South Florida, in Tampa. Chris Arnade’s father, Charles Arnade, was a professor of economics at USF for nearly five decades. I remember the name, but never met him. Small world.

Bob