Photos:

This is a series of photographs taken in a psychiatric hospital. As an artist, drugs and their confrontation, can either offer you redemption or inspiration. I chose the last one. And although I understand the reasons some people (ab)use drugs, maybe more than is good for me, I’m mainly fascinated by the consequences. Confronted and somehow bored with the typical images of addicts and their environment, I decided to accept the challenge. I had to shoot pictures covering the real emotions that come with addiction: despair, guilt, loneliness and (emotional) pain. So I grabbed my camera and went out. Living in Antwerp, a major city, my subjects weren’t that hard to track down. But I quickly realized the drug users in the streets were a prey too “common” and would only confirm the typical and criminal image citizens of a major city already had. My photos would only stigmatize drug users more. At this moment I drastically decided to shoot a series of photos that would only represent the pure emotions of addiction. So I did a shoot with only the raw emotions, without people, who would only confirm your image of an addict. I photographed addiction at it’s worst. I saw addiction, not only through my lens. I felt it.

Illustration:

I made these illustrations in attempt to prove my environment that not only illegal substances are dangerous to a human mind. Happiness is in a way also a drug, people just keep chasing it. They believe in it and rely their lives on it. They will take drastic measures to insure their daily dose of happiness. Happiness is very ego centered feeling. You would do what ever it takes to achieve it. That’s why I think it sometimes can be dangerous, when some people promise it or when you would do literary anything to grasp a sense of it, ignoring the fact it was in front of you all the time!