“Alexander, Not Alex” is a photographic body of work that explores the life of my partner, Alexander. He started using drugs at the age of nine and later became a heroin addict. He made the life-altering decision to get sober in May of 2019 shortly before his younger brother Christopher fell victim to his addiction in June of 2019. Although he was clean from hard drugs, he was not sober. He traded heroin for alcohol, and I watched as his life became a downward spiral. All the help in the world did not matter because he did not want to get sober. It finally came to a point where Alexander knew he had to change and so began his journey of sobriety. He is now learning to deal with life on life’s terms and is becoming his true, unaltered self. Documenting this evolution has been my inspiration. Alexander has become my muse.

We are currently in the midst of an opioid crisis. Over 100,000 overdoses were recorded in the US in 2020 making it the deadliest year yet. Help needs to be more easily accessible and affordable for addicts. I want my work to demonstrate that addicts struggle with life just as everyone does at one point or another, we all simply have different circumstances. I want viewers to feel an emotional connection to my work. Perhaps the viewer is an addict getting sober or perhaps they are someone who loves someone struggling with addiction. When I first began this body of work, Alexander was very deep into his addiction; this body of work presents his progression to becoming his purest self.

Using my on-camera flash, I freeze a moment in time creating a “snap-shot” aesthetic. On-camera flash is arguably one of the most unflattering forms of lighting. I am showing raw and often uncomfortable images. There is no sugarcoating in my work. Alexander once told me these photographs make him look crazy and my sole response was “The camera doesn’t lie”. I wish to continue this body of work for as long as he allows me. As flawed humans, we never

stop evolving no matter the circumstances. This evolution of self is my preoccupation, first given to me by Alexander, but now my passion as well.