Get Some Young: Buying puppies off guys outside pubs and quitting the smack, fifth time lucky

Poor blog has suffered a lack of love and attention lately. That's not to say I haven't been photographing things, but rather I just haven't dedicated any time to editing down or uploading my images. I'm working on another blog that features my non-diaristic photographs, and also a Reading by Night series that will feature somewhere in the not-too-distant future. Also MA papers don't write themselves... they're my excuses and i'm sticking to them.

I don't really think about the company I keep so much, but recently at Danny's Wedding it was noted that I divide my time, almost in half, between slumming it with junkies whom have been my best friends for over a decade, and now, increasingly, a burgeoning bourgeois fellowship of happy aspiring twenty-somethings. The polarising nature of this split can be seen in the images of this very post. And my conscientious friend at said wedding exclaimed it was high time for me to, as Irvine Welsh would put it, Choose Life. Needless to say I have mixed feelings about the whole ordeal, and I've never been one to take good advice.

Missy on my sofa

A couple of weeks ago my brother bought a dog off a crackhead outside a pub. At £30 it was a veritable steal, probably literally, and the photograph's I've taken of 'Missy' lately have been among my favourite. Some animals, I think, have attitudes that really come across in photograph's, as emotive, if not more so, than humans.

Dutty with Missy

David showing M.O.K Crew tattoo

David recently got a tally of five tattooed on his fingers and some latin initials to commemorate his 'Fifth Time Lucky' for getting off of heroin. I've seen similar behavior in the past when friends are quitting smack; they're much more likely to spend constantly and frivolously in order to leave nothing to give to dealers - also it seems a rather depressing and futile attempt to fill the void that the process of using, and significantly the daily routine of acquisition, would formerly fulfil. Haven't actually heard back from David in a few days so i'm hoping he hasn't taken a turn for the worst. The last time we spoke he was building a Yurt in his garden which he plans to take out to some countryside and live a life of frugal un-commodified liberation.

David with finger tattoos

David with finger tattoos

David, the last time I saw him to date. Three days clean and not very happy about it.

Em at Moller's Halloween party '13

Mollers, Neil and Em

Okay, so my Halloween costume wasn't exactly the greatest effort. I'm missing the ears here. But as you can see this is considerably more Halloween festive than the efforts of Gareth and Neil.