My Brother’s Keeper: Pictures of My Brother’s Life of Addiction
Photography by: Joason Flori
Photographer Joason Flori’s brother is both a heroin addict and a working parent. Florio’s series of pictures captures his brother’s life over 10 years of addiction, a life of addiction that’s far more common than what’s usually portrayed. As Florio states, “My life as a photographer is based around being in other people’s ‘situations.’ This work is my first attempt to confront a subject that I cannot walk away from.”
“For the past 22 years my brother has been a heroin addict. Over the past eight or so years whenever I return home to London (I live in New York City), I document his continuous struggle of being addicted, getting clean, detoxifying, and then relapsing back to using. In a sense, his story is common, but I wanted to portray his addiction uniquely. Addicts are often depicted as being poor, undereducated, unemployed, marginalized “losers,” or rock stars succumbing to the pressures of fame.”
“He is in a sense a “functioning” addict, in that he works his life around the continual need to “score” daily whilst being a working parent. The images of him are [from] over nearly a decade and present him in a number of ways. We are all individually multiple; the faces he presents can be at moments so tender and at other times horrifying to witness.”
Jason Florio’s work has been widely exhibited. He won the 2009 spotlight award from Black and White Magazine, and was a 2009 PDN finalist for travel portraits. His editorial clients include Colors, The New Yorker, GQ, and Outside.
Slide Show: My Brother’s Keeper/Pictures of My Brother’s Life of Addiction
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