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Inge Morath Award

Image from Jessica Dimmock's The Ninth Floor. Last year, Jessica Dimmock received the Inge Morath Award which was established to encourage young female photojournalists. She shares with us how she found and completed her award-winning photo documentary 'The Ninth Floor' about several people in a New York apartment living with drug addiction, and why it's important to have an award only for women. How did you find the subject of your photodocumentary? I was studying at the International Center of Photography at the time. I was on the street fiddling with a digital camera because as of then I had not used one before. I was approached by a cocaine dealer who made it clear that he was a dealer. Over the course of the conversation he made it clear that if I wanted to follow him and photograph him I could. He took me to a variety of places - parties, people's apartments, the owner of an escort service. The last place he ever took me was the apartment where the project starts. He was arrested shortly thereafter, and I have never seen him since, despite trying to find him. But because he brought me to this apartment and made the initial introduction I went back with prints from my first visit. After that, and some slow starts, I was allowed to return at any time. Learn more about the Inge Morath Award

robert

once again; thank you Magnum Society for another gem !! You truly show us
very real and alternative views to this WORLD> For this my eternal gratitude. I
think that their surely should be an award just for females. Jessica is WORTHY !!

Mahesh Shantaram

The Ninth Floor also won the F Award for the Concerned Photographer, and there are clues in this interview that Jessica Dimmock was indeed worthy of that award.

I hope you make it a regular feature to get more award-winning photographers to talk about the what when into their projects. Thank you!

Tim Freh

Er zit een erg mooie atmosfeer in deze foto. Zeer goed werk (ondanks dat de foto door een spiegel gemaakt is) !

Daniel

Well, sometimes the mystic question of getting access is just a question of luck. What you make of it is first and formost a question of dedication. There are hundreds of stories on drug addiction anywhere in the world, but this one is by far one of my favourites.

jorge

No consigo ver nada original en estas fotos. La misma mirada de siempre sobre los derrotados por la vida.
I can´t see nothing new on this pictures.

Photography

I love the expression on the guy's face. Thanks for sharing!

James Cox

Just seems strange that a drug dealer in NY would come up to you & tell you you can photograph him & some of the addicts he knows. If I were a documentary photographer, I’d be a bit suspicious. I looked at the (very big) photos on the website & somehow it just doesn’t work for me. It all seems so orchestrated, almost contrived. I found it hard to connect with these people in anyway. It was difficult to feel any kind of empathy or compassion. A long way from the seminal works of Eugene Richards ( Cocaine True Cocaine Blue) & Donovan Wylie ( Losing ground). I suggest people take another look at these & compare.

deghia fairouz

Il est difficile d ' etre sans esprit humain face à la douleur humaine , a mes yeux , certains humains méritent de connaitre le code de l ' appel au secours de l ' humanité. Comment peut on rester sans émotions face à ses images ! Que fais notre gouvernement ! et que font les humains sans humanité ! !Alors sommes nous des etres indignes , sans valeurs humaines ..........

Andy Booth

I am no expert in photography, but that is one of the most interesting and coolest photos I have ever seen.

cc

she was also featured in the Fall 2006 issue of aperture magazine
check it out

James Cox

Deghia suggests that, because of my reaction to these photos, I’m in some way incapable of understanding any signs of distress sent out by my fellow human beings. If I were so insensitive to this kind of thing then why would I suggest that people look at Eugene Richard’s & Donovan Wylie’s work? When I look at their work I do feel the empathy & compassion that most human beings do in front of such a desperate situation. It’s precisely because I didn’t feel these emotions when I looked at Jessica Dimmock’s work that I wrote what I wrote. Her photos failed to bring out these emotions in me. Maybe that’s because there‘s something lacking in my emotional make up or maybe it’s something about her work. I’ll try and explain my point of view. The photos on the site are automatically splashed on to your screen and literally fill it. I can’t describe them all but I think one in particular illustrates my point. It’s a « Goldinesque » shot of a tattooed couple on a bed, having sex. What kind of emotions was the photographer trying to get over when she took this shot and why did she decide to include it in the edited photos? Like a lot of Nan Goldin’s photos, I just felt as though I was in some kind of cheap peepshow. Compare the Ninth floor portfolio with photos taken by Simon Wheatley in Amsterdam (see his personal page on the Magnum website). I’m sure that there are photos that Simon decided not to take or at least to edit out. If you like Deghia there a certain “retenue” & “pudeur” here which is in my opinion is the mark of good humanistic photography. There’s a very thin line sometimes between this & sensationalism. For me, Jessica’s portfolio was on the wrong side of that line. But after all, that’s only my opinion, my reaction to the photos & how they’re presented. The people at Magnum obviously felt differently, so I don’t think Jessica’s going to be giving a lot of credit to how I feel!

Simona Dumitriu

The simple fact of these photographs triggering reactions and oppinions proves them worthy of attention. There is a line from which on photojournalism becomes sensationalism, a very fine and subtle line. I feel that Jessica Dimmock's drug addicts works stand on this line exactly, on the edge of it, and there is where their value begins. Artists such as Nan Goldin and others offered a free transgression pass which is utterly precious, because the filter of fleurs du mal beauty and humanity is dangerous and out of date in circumstances as these. The young journalist made the issue painfully clear for me - it looks as what it is, not as an aesthetised version of it. I'm actually very curious - and maybe Jessica can answer it - how long it took for such degree of trust to be formed, a lot of time or maybe very little (sometimes drug addicts are literally needing to perform their addiction in front of cameras)?

Nevermind

James Cox, I agree with you!!!

da-answer

A very strong photographic compilation of a window to a new (hidden) world or known to few at least. i don't hink it is being sensationalist, there are many humanistic aspects in this work. the couple having sex doesn't bother me at all, it rather opens a further window, i mean sex is human isn't it? maybe not on drugs, but even that has been done for a very long time already.
The most important subjects in these pictures are the humans themselves and their way of seeing life and the sad addiction drugs can get to be. Photography is about looking and seeing.

Peter

It appears critical comments can and are rejected by the original poster. Makes you wonder about the value of this sort of 'communication'. Peter

Martin Fuchs

Peter, you posted a total of 16 comments on various articles on the Magnum Blog. I always appreciate your comments a lot, they are detailed and thoughtful. If you look through the comments you posted here quite a couple of them offered critique and a different point of view than the authors had. Which I find not only interesting but also extremely important and valuable.

I don't however understand what you refere to with "It appears critical comments can and are rejected by the original poster. Makes you wonder about the value of this sort of 'communication'." You never posted a comment to this article by Jessica Dimmock. Or are you refering to comments from other people?

Peter

I thought that I had. I'm living in a less than perfect electronic environment and must assume that my post never made it to the Magnum blog server. Ergo, ignore my post. I'll re-post my reaction to this blog soonest. Thank you.

Peter

My original comment...which disappeared in tech space went something like this: the photographer has entered a private space, and a forbidden one. Depicting behaviour associated with the loss of control of senses...of debased animal like reflexes. And, this is where I am a bit uncomfortable with the display, as if she were the proverbial "priest in a whorehouse". Looking in from the outside and giving me the feeling as if I was looking through the keyhole at it all. Embarrassed.

Guillermo

There is a very interesting multimedia presentation of Jessica Dimmock's The Ninth Floor at MediaStorm website:
http://mediastorm.org/0021.htm