TZN Portraits

TZN is a drug abuse preventing organization in Poland. However, in addition to helping addicts and informing about dangers concerning drugs, TZN organizes therapy groups for teenagers having problems withing their families, school or with police.

In the beginning of December, my dear friend Marta asked me to take some portraits of those teenagers and two weeks later, five of them gathered in TZN’s building for a photoshoot. First, I wanted to take them outside but it turned out to be too much hassle and so we stayed inside. Corridor was quite appealing with it’s scratched walls and gratings.

Between patients, customers and different organizations’ members going up and down the corridor I begun taking pictures. At first atmosphere was a bit rusty but guys felt better with every blink of strobes. However, one of my subjects felt rather stressed. Kuba is very withdrawn and reserved. He showed it beautifully in the below shot:

After some persuasion he finally showed some positive emotions, started smiling, laughing and fooling around in front of the lens… It was his way to relieve stress and turned out as a nice, funny photo:

Denis is our baggy boy. He loves loose clothes and felt rather good as a model. Although building self-esteem was one of the goals of this whole session, Denis felt fairly confident from the beginning. He joked around about his looks and told me to make him look his best on photos. I turned for the harsh shadows to emphasize his loose sweatshirt. Bruise on his chick and around left eye only enhanced the gangsta look.

My last subject was Filip. Confident, in your face lad with military trousers and classic HeavyDuty combat boots. I looked around and found stairs’ railing that could make an interesting background. I used a warming gel from the left to emphasize yellow walls and his face. Rails created cool shapes on the wall and second strobe made reflections line at the top. Both of these made the photo work for me:

As it turned out Filip is really something and one portrait wasn’t quite enough for him, and neither it was for me. He moved to another spot and started posing while sitting on the floor. His emotive and sensitive face felt completely out of place in comparison with his clothes.

Big thanks to all of you, guys, those not mentioned too! I had a great time photographing you and I hope to do it again some day.