Jake Corcoran, Shades of Another Water, Senior Exercise Statement

“If we continue down this path and cannot save lives, then this crisis is more than just a policy failure; it is a failure of imagination.”  

– Jack Schuler, This is Ohio: The Overdose Crisis and the Front lines of a New America 

This series of photographs titled Shades of Another Water seeks to close the gap between Americans struggling with substance addiction and the largely misinformed public. Popular media coverage of the topic often falls into sensationalization as a way to intrigue and shock audiences at the risk of supporting harmful stereotypes. Images of rushing ambulances and overdose deaths depict a harsh reality for our country, but they are only the end of a story. This project shifts the focus to the individuals who need support through harm-reducing strategies and recovery resources. Their stories are often the ones not told, because they refuse singularity. While everyone included in this project is currently in out-patient recovery, their experiences are vast and varying. This project exists in the liminal experience that is the battle of recovery, in all of its instability, alienation and personal hardship: in between the cracks of how photojournalism and news media pander to preconceived notions. Somber black and white photographs convey a sense of time passing – fervently in waves of water crashing into a black abyss, or the ripples of a splash as they begin to echo out into the dark water. Portraits of humans at various points in their struggle reflect the honest introspection necessary to get sober. Through spending the time to sit down and listen without judgment for several months, I found myself depicting an intimate portrait of the faces, stories and places of a battered community that acknowledges the past while looking forward with hope. My interest in this particular topic comes from the battles with addiction some of those closest to me are still enduring.

The discussion of reform must come from a basis of humanization that views each person as an individual not defined by their addictions. This, more than any other, is the impetus for the creation of this work. As such, a particular point of friction within the project is the risk of objectification. The interaction between photographer and subject must not be a one-sided affair. Building lasting relationships with my subjects goes beyond the outcome of the project. The real-life experiences of the people I have met guides the camera.

Located in the heart of the Rust Belt and on the edge of Appalachia, Central Ohio has been a site of industrial and population exodus. In the 1950s, nearly half of all manufacturing jobs in the country were located in the Rust Belt. Just 30 years later, 34% of these manufacturing jobs in the region and 28% of total jobs were gone. As abruptly as America’s corporate interests moved away from the Rust Belt, so did its sympathies. 

Today, Ohio has perennially topped the charts for overdose deaths in the country and the “opioid crisis” is a pressing political topic. The disconnect between political action and legitimate harm-reduction and overdoses is in the short-sighted approach that over-criminalizes drug possession and lacks sympathy for the humans suffering from its effects. As it is set up currently, the criminal justice system is not aimed at successful rehabilitation and recovery on a personal level. It spits people back out into a world ever more unprepared to welcome them. The overdose crisis is a human rights crisis that exposes the deeply troubling consequences of bad policies and societal failings.